a pinterest christmas: christmas tree skirt.

this was a really fun project until it took FOREVER to complete! the nice thing is that it was really simple, i think i just made it way harder on myself (i will explain below).

{the original pinterest link: christmas tree skirt.}

supplies:

heavy fabric - about 4 feet by 4 feet (i used a painter's canvas drop cloth from home depot)

hot glue & hot glue gun (you will need lots of glue)

3 to 5 yards of white/ivory linen or cotton fabric (i used about 4 yards of ivory cotton fabric that i found in the quilting section of joann)

fabric scissors

ruler or measuring tape

pencil 

ribbon (i used less than 1 spool of grosgrain ribbon)

{i started with my canvas drop cloth. since i wanted a 4 foot by 4 foot square, i just trimmed 6 inches off each side.}

{then, i folded the canvas into a triangle and rounded off the end. it doesn't have to be perfect as you can always go back and trim.}

{i cut off the little end of the triangle to make a hole for the tree trunk.}

{i opened up the canvas to see how the skirt was forming. it definitely wasn't round enough so i trimmed the edges to make it more round.}

{then i cut a straight line into the middle circle.}

{next, i cut strips of my cotton fabric. i chose to make them 2.5 inches wide but you could go thinner or thicker if you want.}

{this is the start of the tedious part: you take a fabric strip and fold it into accordion-type folds, you put a line of hot glue down on the canvas, and then lay the folded fabric onto the glue. i think the reason my skirt took me so long (between 6 or 7 hours!) and so much fabric (4-ish yards) is because i did my folds really small. i think if you do bigger folds, the project will be faster and you will use less fabric.}

{and then you continue the process of folding & gluing all of the way around the edge of the skirt.}

{and then you just continue with the layers, overlapping each layer over the last one.}

{when i finally finished - whew! - the remaining canvas was uneven. it wasn't really enough to add another layer of fabric, and i momentarily thought adding ribbon would be a good idea, and then i just cut the remaining fabric off!}

{then i cut a four lengths of ivory ribbon and hot glued them to the back of the skirt to make ties for the opening.}

{and it's done! we have a really teeny christmas tree - about 5 feet tall - so this tree skirt is just a bit big, but still looks cute!}

what do you have around the bottom of your christmas tree this year?
M