Twelve Weeks of Homemade Gifts: Week Ten - FINALLY. The Tree Skirt

If you're friends with me on Facebook, you may have seen that I had to postpone this project by a day because I found out I have a new severe allergy.

Burlap.

Yup. Burlap.

I started out making a cute ruffled tree skirt. I ended up with hives.

How? Why? I don't know. But what I do know, is that I need to start documenting all my traumatic injuries caused by crafting. This happens a bit too often...I'm typically just too embarrassed to tell you about it.

So here we go, my beautiful tree skirt! No sewing skills required. Just a lot of time. And a lot of hot glue.

For this you will need:

-A whole lot of fabric. [I used at least 1 extra wide yard to make the base, then probably another 2 to make the ruffles. ]

I wanted my tree skirt to have three colors, ivory, gray, and deadly light green burlap.

-A whole lot of hot glue [I went through 75% of a 40 stick pack.]
-Scissors
-Time

Let me tell you, this is not a quick project. I probably spent about 6 hours total time on this baby [granted, I was watching Real Housewives of Atlanta/Beverly Hills for a large portion of that time...so let's say 3 hours to be safe]

I started by using an old tree skirt as a template for my base. You could also use the old tree skirt as the base. Or, just cut a circle with a 5 ft. diameter. Your choice. 

Then, I made sure to cut out the little middle part.

Then, I cut a straight line to the middle so it can wrap around the tree:

Now, cut a TON of strips for your ruffles. I made all of mine 3" wide. Change your measurement based on what you want your look to be. I wanted mine to be SUPER RUFFFFLLLLEEEYY so I made mine 3".

Also, depending on what look you want, you could use either of these methods to make the ruffles. If you want very dramatic ruffles, use this first method:

Hot glue your first strip to the edge of your cut-line down the middle of the skirt:

Put a dot of hot glue on the base, and attach your fabric. Then put a drop of glue on the top side of your fabric:

Accordion fold the fabric over:

This is what those ruffles look like:

Very dramatic.

Oh, wait...how did this get in here?

Now second method is for more flow-y ruffles [this is what I chose to do for the whole thing.] Put a line of hot glue on the base [I did about 2 inches at a time.] Place the fabric lightly on top of the hot glue and pinch together every 1/2 inch or so:

This is what a bunch of those ruffles look like:

Soooo flowwwyyy.

Keep moving all the way around the skirt. Once you finish that row, start about 2 inches above and continue with your chosen ruffle method.

Now do this....forever. It turns out to be very zen after a while. Go crazy with a pattern, or do it all in the same fabric.

I went with a semi-pattern for the bottom, and one color up top:

No, my edges didn't match up.
That's the nice thing about this,  it doesn't have to be perfect.

Now, time for the ties. Cut strips of fabric that are 1/2 the width of your ruffles [mine was 1 1/2" width] and 12 inches long.

Hot glue each strip to the backside of the skirt, making sure that the ties line up across the cut.

I used two ties, but you could use more if that is the look you are going for.

Tie them pretty and put it around that giant plant! Alright!

Unfortunately, it's too dark in my house to get a good picture of the tree skirt under the tree. I'll try to snap one tomorrow when it is light outside.

Have fun!