This year we decided to get little girl her own mini {3 ft.} tree when we saw them on clearance at Target {where else??} After setting it up in her room, I thought it would be fun to make a little tree skirt and I started to look at different tutorials on Pinterest. After some serious doubting of my sewing abilities, I decided to go the “no sew” route, inspired by {this} tutorial. Since I knew this was going to be for a 2-year-old, I wasn’t afraid to get a nice bright colourful pattern, but it would also work well to stick with the monocromatic concept. Also I sure this would work for any size skirt, you’ll just need to alter the dimensions obviously. I ended up spending $8 on mine!
Materials:
- 1 yard “main” fabric
- 1/8 yard color 1 {for circles}*
- 1/8 yard color 2 {for circles}*
- gems or sequins {I already had some gems from Hobby Lobby}
- hot glue & hot glue gun
*If you wanted to do one colour for the circles, you could probably still get away with 1/8 yard total as I had plenty extra… that’s just the smallest amount they will let you get!
Begin by creating a square. {Measure the width of your fabric & that will also be your length.} Trim the “raw edge” before measuring length.
Next, fold the square twice, into a smaller square, so that all the raw edges are together {2 sides raw, 2 sides folds.}
Measure the length/width of your folded square. This will be the number you use to create your circle. Using a firm tape measure or yard stick as a compass, make mark small dots about 1/2″ apart. You will want to keep one end of the tape measure in the “folded” corner, and rotate the tape from one “raw” corner to the other. {I actually started in the center and then worked to each corner: either way is fine!}
This should create a serious of dots, which you can then connect to make a curve. Also, trace the edge or a circular object in the center for the center circle {the exact size doesn’t really matter, just make it large enough to go around a tree!}
Cut along your dotted & traced line to remove the raw edges on outside & traced line for the middle.
Next, cut a line so that the middle circle is acessible {it helped that I had striped fabric!}
Now comes the circles! I used part of a canning lid… again, a circle roughly that size {1.5-2″} is fine! Oddly enough, the circles lined up perfectly side-by-side on my green fabric, but I had to do them at an angle on the white fabric. Guess it just depends on how your 1/8 yard is cut? I folded my fabric in half, and did my circles in sets of four {so every four I traced produced 8 circles.}
I believe I did 3 sets of 4 for each colour… I laid them out as I went, slightly overlapping them, so I would know when to stop tracing & cutting. It worked out perfectly at first!
Next, I added a gem to each circle with hot glue… The container I have has several different sizes and I just used whatever I happen to grab.
I then hot glued the circles to the skirt, slightly overlapping them again. You only need a small amount in the top 1/3 of the circle to stick.
Alternatively you could put the circles side-by-side, just touching, but i preferred the overlapping look.
Somehow when I got to the end I had an extra white… i must have just put a tiny bit more space between the circles the second time around! O well 🙂
It actually ended up being a little large for the corner her tree was in, so I kind of bunched it up… and I like it even better that way! {She won’t be keeping any of the presents in her room :P}
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6 Comments
lovelypettit
December 12, 2012 at 8:12 pmlove it. you have nice talent to make your own styles. keep it up… have a nice day
Kate @ DCL
December 12, 2012 at 9:17 pmthank you 🙂
Ashley@AttemptsAtDomestication
December 14, 2012 at 2:04 amSo cute! I really like it! 🙂
Kate @ DCL
December 14, 2012 at 5:09 amthanks! i was pretty happy with how it turned out… obviously 😛
http://www.feralturtle.com
December 14, 2012 at 4:02 pmYour tree skirt is adorable! Good job on the new sewing route. From your newest follower, Merry Christmas!
Kate @ DCL
December 14, 2012 at 4:08 pmThanks! I do alright with a sewing machine in general… but I really wanted to keep this simple & easy for my own sanity lol 🙂 Thanks for following!