How to Sew a Reversible Tree Skirt

This is a Guest Post by the super amazing One Hundred Dollars a Month reader Mel {she’s the one who made A Freezer Meal Menu Plan for Four Month’s Worth of Meals, and then made a Big List of Freezer Meal Recipes and Freezer Meal Cooking Tips.}

Mel has also shared how she made all those AWESOME gift bags, showed us her Mini Sewing Room Makeover and shared her recipe for DIY Lemonade Concentrate} and her Super Simple Summer Tomato Pasta. She also told us about her Experience Joining a CSA and Eating More Vegetables. I think at this point, we pretty much all want Mel to be our neighbor. I know I do! Here is her latest post:

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Last year, one of my goals was to sew a tree skirt for our Christmas tree stand. That goal ended up being a bit of a nightmare because we have a non-standard size tree stand, so I couldn’t use an existing pattern, and the math to make my own was very complicated. And the tree stand itself couldn’t be covered by fabric because there’s a weird sort of water overflow moat on the outside. I eventually finished it, but it was quite the odyssey. Here is that doozy of a tree skirt:

But along the way to figuring out that large and complicated tree skirt, I cranked out a much faster and simpler version for our smaller LED birch tree based on a few different ideas on Pinterest.

So, I combined all those ideas to put together a tutorial for the simpler version. It’s better suited to tree stands with a narrow base, so it won’t work if you have a giant awkward tree stand, but it will work great for smaller stands and most artificial trees, and it’s even reversible. It does have lots of steps, but they are all easy. So, here’s the tutorial for the reversible-yet-simplified version:

Materials:

• Sewing machine
• Iron and ironing board
• Cutting mat
• Rotary cutter
• Acrylic quilting ruler
• Pins and sewing clips
• Thread
• 1.5 yards fusible fleece
• 1.5 yards each of two different quilting cottons (nondirectional patterns work best)
• Twill tape
• Pencil or washable fabric pencil
• Sharpie

A Note on Fabrics: You probably only need about 1.25 yards of each fabric and of fusible fleece, but I like having a bit extra. You can always make matching gift bags.

Directions:

1. Wash, dry, and iron your fabric. Fold each piece of fabric in half from top to bottom and then again from left to right.
2.  As shown in the picture above, position one piece of fabric so that you have a single folded edge on the left and two folded edges on the bottom.

3.Using the acrylic ruler, measure the bottom edge. This will determine the radius of your tree skirt. Using your regular pencil or washable pencil, mark the bottom edge where you want. Due to the width of my fabric, the maximum radius of my skirt would be about 20 inches, so that’s what I went with.

4. Keeping the ruler in place on the bottom left corner of the fabric, rotate the right edge of the ruler along the fabric, marking your radius measurement as you go.
5. Keep rotating the ruler, marking your radius every couple of inches as you go, until you reach the left folded edge of the fabric.

6. Use your pencil or washable fabric pencil to connect the dots you just made marking the radius.

7. Repeat steps 2-6 on the same fabric in order to mark the radius of the opening for the tree trunk. I made mine about 3 inches since our LED tree has a super skinny trunk. The opening for the tree will end up being a little over twice what you choose for the radius here, so a 3-inch radius will yield a tree opening that’s about 6 inches across.

8. Slide a cutting mat under the fabric and then use the rotary cutter to cut along the pencil lines for both the outer radius of the skirt and the inner tree opening radius. You might have to reposition the mat as you go to keep it under where you need to cut.

9. Open up the fabric, which should be shaped like a doughnut. Slide the cutting mat back under the fabric. Using the acrylic quilting ruler and the rotary cutter, cut a straight line from the inner circle to the outer edge. I made my cut near one of the fold lines so that it wasn’t at a crazy angle.

10. Repeat steps 2-9 with your other piece of folded fabric.

11. Repeat steps 2-9 with your fusible fleece. I marked my fleece with sharpie instead of pencil, and I cut it with an outer radius slightly than my fabrics (19.75 inches instead of 20 inches) and the tree opening radius slightly than my fabrics (3.25 inches instead of 3 inches). Also, when doing step 9 for the fusible fleece, I cut an additional .25 inch off each side of the cut. These changes are not essential, but it makes it a little easier to sew.

12. Lay the fleece glue side down on the wrong side of one of your fabrics and then pin in place. Use your iron/ironing board to fuse the glue side of the fusible fleece to the wrong side of the fabric. Follow the directions that come with your fleece if needed. Remove any pins after fusing. (My fleece is looking a little rumpled since I hadn’t fused it yet in this picture.)

13. Cut lengths of twill tape to make the ties. The exact length doesn’t matter, but you want something long enough to tie into a bow with another piece the same length. I also like to knot the ends of twill tape to prevent fraying, so you can add a little extra length for that if you want. On one piece of fabric (positioned right side up), lay out the pieces of twill tape along the cut that runs from the inner circle to the outer circle.

14. The number of ties also doesn’t matter, but you do want to have them in pairs—one piece on the left side of the cut lined up with one on the right side of the cut—so that you can tie them together. Use sewing clips to hold the twill in place along the cut just so they don’t wiggle around for the next step.

15. Pin the loose edges of the twill tape down so they won’t interfere with sewing.

16. Line up the two doughnuts of fabric with their right sides together and use sewing clips (or pins) to hold them in place. Make sure to carefully replace/reposition the clips or pins from step 13 so that the twill tape is still held in place.

17. Using a .25-inch seam allowance, sew all the way around the inner circle, the edges where the twill tape is, and the outer circle, leaving a 5-inch opening to turn the skirt right side out.

18. Trim the corners.

19. Make small cuts all around the inner circle, being careful not to cut the seam.

20. Turn the fabric right side out using the opening you left. Be careful not to stick yourself on the pins holding the twill tape in place.

21. Carefully iron the skirt so the corners and edges are crisp.

22. Topstitch around all of the interior and exterior edges to close the opening you left for turning and give the skirt a more finished look. Your reversible tree skirt is done!

You might be wondering what I did with the small circles of fabric I cut out from the center to make the opening for the tree. Naturally, I used them to make a mini tree skirt for the tree in my antique Christmas village. I probably should have gone with a smaller print fabric for that, but it was still pretty cute!

~Mel