Can’t find or can’t afford the tree skirt of your dreams? Or maybe time is short and you’re caught without a festive tree skirt to fit this year’s decorating theme? Make your own! You can co-ordinate the skirt with your table décor. As these ara easy to make, more than one tree skirt is in order!
Materials:
- A holiday themed 68- 70-inch round tablecloth. A Battenberg Lace tablecloth makes a particularly elegant tree skirt.
- At least one yard of 1/2-inch wide double-fold bias quilt binding (it will unfold to a 1-inch wide band with 1/4-inch seam allowance on each side).
- 2¼ yards of 3/4-inch wide white satin ribbon
Tools:
- Sewing machine
- Scissors
- Measuring tape
- Straight pins
Instructions:
(Note that all seams are 1/4-inch)
- Fold the tablecloth in half and then in half again.
- From the center tip or point, measure down 4 ½-inches on either side. Then draw a curved line between those points. This will be the cutting line for the center opening of your tree skirt.
- Cut through all layers on the marked line.
- For the side opening of the tree skirt, cut along one fold from the center circular opening down to the bottom edge of the table cloth
- Stay stitch 1/4-inch or less from the edge around the center opening.
- Hem each side of the straight cut edge, by turning under ½-inch of fabric, twice. This will encase any raw edges inside of the hems.
- Return to the circular opening. Take the double-folded bias tape and press open. Lay one raw edge of the right side of the bias tape to the right side of the tablecloth’s circular opening. Align the edges and pin in place with straight pins. Make a ¼-inch seam. Turn the binding to the inside of the tablecloth, raw edges will be encased in the binding.
- Press.
- To form the casing for the ribbon drawstring, turn the binding to the inside so that the seam becomes the finished edge of the circular opening.
- Sew the folded edge of the bias tape to the tree skirt no more than 1/4-inch from the edge. Top stitch ¼-inch or less from the top finished edge of the tree skirt. Be sure to fold under about ½-inch of bias tape at each end to present a finished edge where the tree skirt opens.
- Fasten a safety pin to the end of the satin ribbon and thread it through the casing that the bias tape formed. Remove the safety pin when ribbon has been threaded. Tie the ribbon in a decorative bow to hold the skirt in place when in use under the tree.
Variations
These make great gifts and are delightfully easy family heirlooms. For anyone who would care to embellish the finished tree skirt, add beading, embroidery, or even write a message or family names with textile pens.
Source:
- Sew easy, Sew no! 1994, Oxmoor House, Inc.
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Dawn Goldsmith - Dawn Goldsmith is a freelance writer and former news reporter with Freedom Communications and Gannett. Her work has been published in a ...
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