Ruffle Tree Skirts

A few months back while milling about on Pinterest, I saw a DIY ruffle tree skirt made using only hot glue. I was in love immediately! You could say I have a mild obsession with ruffles. Well leave it to me to resist the hot glue method when it came time to making my actual tree skirts. Sewing ruffles has become second nature to me this year, so I thought how hard could a tree skirt be. The answer is not very hard if you know the precise measurements and have a list of supplies. I had neither one when I made the decision to make the tree skirts. I guess I like a good challenge.

For the first tree skirt, I actually used a round fabric table cloth as the base because it was the only neutral colored fabric I could find on the island that I liked, and it was big enough for me to use part of it for ruffles as well. I slid it under my Hello Kitty tree to figure out the size I wanted and went from there.

Fortunately, after several days of cutting, sewing, ruffling, and attaching, I finished my first tree skirt. I happened to have the thread and ribbon I needed on hand, so I only had to purchase the fabric. I was happily surprised by the final product.

The second tree skirt came together much more easily since I finally knew what I was doing. I bought double the amount of Hawaiian print fabric before knowing how much I would really need. It's a good thing I did this because the second tree skirt ended up needing to be larger to fit our Norfolk Pine. Once it was finished it was the perfect touch to our Hawaiian Christmas tree.

I worked on the tree skirts here and there whenever I could squeeze them in. I continually referred to this project as the "Longest Sewing Project Ever". It took much longer than I anticipated, and several times I wished I had just hot glued the darn things. However, once I finished both of them, I was so happy I decided to sew them. They both have a polished appearance and I know they will hold up for many years to come.

No project would be complete without a little horsing around. I tortured my lover a bit with my first tree skirt. He was a good sport about it though.

I also danced around a bit with them. I had to have a little fun. How else was I going to remain sane working on this project? I seriously thought I was beginning to lose my marbles making these.

In the end, all of the hours, days, and late nights spent working on these were absolutely worth it. Now I have two fabulous unique tree skirts that compliment my trees.