Christmas Tree Skirt

This Christmas tree skirt was a labor of love. Seriously. It took a long time. However, it is done. And, I'm actually really proud of it. It's pretty and unique and festive. Just what I wanted it to be.

So, here's how I did it. 

The base for the tree skirt was sewn last year. I simply re-purposed an old table cloth, kind of like this. My table cloth was rectangular to begin with, but still worked beautifully. I decided to line the fabric with vinyl for durability (these things spend all their time on the floor, getting bunched up, sat on, dripped on, etc.) so I bought another similar table cloth and made another skirt the same size. However, since vinyl doesn't need hemming, it needed even less work (hey, super) and was really easy to attach to the already finished and hemmed red skirt. Of course, I only attached the vinyl once the snowflakes were sewn on. That way, all my ugly stitches are hidden. Clever, right?

With the red skirt hemmed up, I began to make snowflakes. I found a lot of free crochet snowflake patterns online, including these and also these and also this one. Pinterest is a super great forum for finding a lot of free patterns. Also, remember that your browser will probably translate any pages that happen to be in foreign languages. And, if you can read a diagrammed pattern, you're in even better shape.

So, I made a lot of these. I used something like this, a fine cotton crochet thread. And, of course, when you first make them they will be very soft. Picots and other details might not show well since the snowflake isn't yet blocked or starched. You'll need to do that next. I stretched out cellophane on my rug with straight pins at each corner and along each side, just enough to keep the plastic in place. Afterward, I pinned down my snowflakes and used a thin mod podge (I thinned it out with water, using about a one:one ratio) to coat them all using a foam craft brush. I flipped them when they felt tacky and slathered the other side. Then, I waited for them to dry completely. You might notice that the ones below have some glitter on them - these were actually used for a different project (why, yes, of course I will post it when it's finished) but the stiffening technique was the same.

You can see that afterward, they are quite stiff and durable.

Then, I worked to lay them all out on the skirt, trying to find a pattern that I liked.

Once I was happy with their placement, I sewed each of them on by hand. I could have used the machine, but worried about the dried glue gumming up the works. Whatever. As you can see, I wasn't very meticulous about it. Hey, they're on. And they'll stay. What more do you want? I did put down a drop of fabric glue at the point of the knot when I was finished, just to make sure.

 I also crocheted an edging which I sewed around the circumference of the skirt. I didn't stiffen it as I did the snowflakes. I don't have a pattern for it drawn up, since I sort of made it up as I went along. But there are a lot of great edging tutorials online. Here's a pretty one.

I may have screwed it up a couple of times as I sewed. Aligning that sucker while keeping the vinyl from slipping was, at times, a pain in the ass. We don't need to talk about it. We just need to be grateful for the ripper. The almighty ripper.

And, there you have it. All done and ready for the tree.