Christmas tree skirt

The stores are full of ugly and cheap-looking Christmas tree skirts. If you have a sewing machine, why not whip up your own tree skirt instead? You'll need a sheet of posterboard, 8 yards of fabric (4 each for top and bottom of skirt), matching thread, a bit of fusible interfacing, and 4-8 jumbo snaps.

I used deep red velvet for the top of the skirt, reversing to green sating on the underside. I wanted to keep things simple, but you could easily dress this up by sewing tassels or another fancy trim into the outer edge, adding a ribbon border, appliques, etc.

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How to:

(1) Use the posterboard to make a wedge-shaped template. You want a quarter of a circle with a smaller arc cut out where the trunk will go. The straight edges sho uld each be 24-36" long, depending on how big you want the skirt to be. It should look something like this:

(2) Trace around the template onto the fabric using a fine-point Sharpie. You will need four wedges for the top and four for the bottom. Make sure you keep the straight edge of the template parallel to the selvedge (side edge) of fabric; don't just be positioning it willy-nilly relative the the grain of the fabric!

(3) Once you have all eight pieces cut out, cut the template to make a skinnier wedge that looks like this:

(4) Following the same process as in step 3, cut two skinny wedges for the top of the skirt and two for the underside.

(5) You should now have 12 pieces: 4 fat and 2 skinny wedges for the top of the skirt, and the same for the bottom. Using a 1/2" seam allowance, sew together the edges of all the wedges for the top of the skirt in this order: skinny, fat, fat, fat, fat, skinny. Don't sew the edges where the two skinny wedges would join -- this is where the snaps will go. You should end up with something resembling a giant circle. Press open the seams.

(6) Repeat step 5 with the pieces for the underside of the skirt.

(7) Spread out the bottom of the skirt right side up on a table. Lay the top of the skirt over it, so that the right sides are facing. Lining up the seams, pin the "necks" (where the tree
trunk goes) together. Stitch. It should now look something like this:

(8) Now pin the outside edge of the top piece of the outside edge of the bottom piece. Again, be sure the seams are aligned! (It helps to start pinning from the middle of the arc rather than from one end.) Stitch along the entire arc.

(9) Pin and stitch one of the straight edges. Then pin the other straight edge and stitch, leaving the top 4" open.

Suitable for kittycats.