Christmas Tree Skirt with Tutorial

I've been up to elf business :)

love love love Christmas time!

I've been dreaming of a peppermint candy stripe tree skirt with purple pom pom trim...and this weekend I got to work! Here's a little step by step of what I did in case you're interested in making one too. It's fairly simple and probably way easier for you seasoned sewers out there - I'm just a newbie! Sorry for the awful tutorial pictures, I worked mainly at night so no beautiful natural light.

Here we go!

(Be sure to read and understand directions before beginning and feel free to ask any questions!.)
**also read the update on the bottom because I found another tutorial that has some great ideas to make 
the tree skirt sewing more simple!

I want a large skirt so my diameter is going to be 57 inches.

Cut your red and white fabric so that it is 60 inches long. Place them right sides together.

Pin one long side together.

Just sew a straight stitch down the one pinned side: backstitching at both ends.

Iron the seam down to the red side.

Lay your now half white and half red piece of fabric on the floor, straighten out all the wrinkles and tape down to floor (I didn't think of taping it down then, that made it much harder to measure and keep flat so be sure to tape!). Mark the Center of the seam (half of our diameter 57 makes our radius of 28.5). From the middle point measure out 28.5 inches several times in each direction in order to draw a perfect circle then cut it out.

I wish I had a good picture to show you what we have now but it is just a large circle (57 inches in diameter) that is exactly one half red and one half white. I want to end up with 6 candy stripes in my skirt. Print a printable protractor off, cut it out and then also make a whole in the very center. (The protractor I have linked here is actually different than the one I used and is a 180 instead of 360 degree protractor, so instead of having to cut a whole in the middle just line it up with the red/white seam).

Mark at 60 and 120 degrees to make 3 equal stripes (really more like pie slices).

Now just turn the protractor so that you can mark the other half.

Now line up the center of the skirt mark with each of your four degree marks and draw the lines to make an "X" in the middle so that you have 6 equal stripes/slices (there will be six if you imagine the seam as a line too).

Now we just have to cut out the center slice of each color and switch them so that there will not be the same color in a row. Here it is in a picture:

Now place the white piece you cut out onto the red piece beside it so that the right sides are facing. 

Pin together.

Do the same with the red piece you cut out.

Then stitch where you pinned.

Iron the seams down over the red side like you did your first seam.

Now you should have this shown in the picture below.

There are only two open sides now.

We want to stitch one of those up but leave the other open so that you have a way to place it around your tree. Fold the skirt top in half and pin one of the open seams together. In the picture you can see that the left side is pinned.

Stitch that up on your machine and now you should have only one opening.

Cut a circle in the center that is 6 inches in diameter so that there will be an opening for your tree.

Now here's our Tree Skirt Top all complete!

You can just barely see in this picture that the only seam not stitched together is the one on the bottom left.

Click to enlarge to make it easier to see.

Next, place your batting under your skirt top and cut it out.

Then, the same thing with your backing fabric.

Pin the three layers together...

and attach your binding. I used white bias tape on the white stripes, and red on the red stripes.

I used a piece of purple bias tape longer than what I needed for the middle so that I could stitch up both ends to make a tie.

The last step is gluing on your trim. Almost there!
The picture below is of the back of my skirt so that all you see on the front are the pom poms and little strings.

And here's the lovely skirt all finished!

Love the little trim :)

It was hard work, but worth it!
Be sure to iron and lent brush when it's needed.

 Please feel free to ask about anything that seems unclear!

**Update**
Since I've made my skirt I've run into other tutorials that have some great ideas to make it more simple and quicker. Check out this tutorial from Smile and Wave. She made cutting out the circle easier by using a ribbon as her measuring tool. It's the first step in her tutorial so be sure to check that out for more details. She also used felt as her backing to give it a little structure. I used batting and backing fabric but felt or something else like fleece would give it good structure too. I do love how mine feels with the batting in the middle so I wouldn't change how I did that step if I could go back but I thought I would share my findings for you all! I would definitely do the ribbon trick though if I made another skirt :)