Patchwork Christmas Tree Skirt Tutorial

Somehow the Christmas season really snuck up on me this year. Usually I have all my gifts wrapped and ready to go by about September. Not this year. . . I just finished our tree skirt yesterday and I still don't have our stockings made. Hopefully I will get finished BEFORE Christmas.

Anyway, I really liked how the tree skirt turned out, so I thought I would share.

Supplies:

88 6" squares
batting
backing
2 yards of bias tape
4.5 yards of trim
1.5 yards of ribbon
pencil
measuring tape
safety pin

#1- Sewing

Sew your 6" squares together into 10 strips- 6 that are 10 squares long, 2 that are 8 squares and 2 that are 6 squares. Now, sew the strips together starting with the shortest, adding the 8 square strip, then the six 10 square strips, 8 squares strip and end with the last 6 square strip. It should look like this:



#2- Basting and quilting

I used muslin on the back (Robert Kaufmann Premium Muslin-- my fave!). Put your front, batting and back together, baste and quilt. I quilted in a grid, 1/4 inch on each side of the seams. I really like the looks of this and it doesn't take too long.

#3- Cutting your skirt out

Fold your quilted skirt in half right sides together, making sure to match up the top and sides. Now we are going to make our circle. Find the very center of your quilt by folding in half again and marking the very corner with your pencil. (If you used grid quilting, you will conveniently have a nice little 1/2 square right smack dab in the middle of your square-- mark it!) Now unfold so that your skirt is still folded in half once. I use a 60" measuring tape to mark my circle. I stick my pin in the very end of the tape, then stick the pin in the carpet at the middle point of my circle, like this:


Then I tape the pencil on the tape measure at 26.5" and carefully draw on your skirt in a circle, keeping the tape measure taut.


Cut on the circle you just made.

Now, we are going to make the inner circle. I used a small plate, but really anything circular will work. Just decide what size you want it to be. Place your circle template (mine is the plate) exactly in the middle of our folded skirt, like so:


Trace around it in pencil and cut it out.

Now we need to cut a straight line from the outer edge to the center circle. I wanted mine on the diagonal, so I cut like this:


#4- Finishing

Take your bias tape and sew it starting one end of the straight cut, going into the center of the skirt, around your inner circle and back down the other straight edge. The inner circle is small enough that you really need to use bias tape, or make your own bias binding.

Then, sew the trim around the outer edge.

Cut your ribbon into six 18" pieces. Sew them along your cut edge in three places on each side, so that you can tie them together.



Now, put it under your tree and admire your handiwork!