Project Marathon: Christmas Tree Skirt Tutorial

 

Step 1:  Pick out your fabric and plan a pattern for your skirt.  I did a pattern that included 7 in squares of 6 different types of Christmas Fabric, Burlap, and Felt.  See below pictures for layout.  I cut and used 88 squares for my tree skirt.  I sewed 6 rows of 10, 2 rows of 8, and 2 rows of 6.  Then sewed the rows together.  Easy Breezy.

 

See my layout?...Love it!  Used the fabric from our stockings.

 

 

Step 2: Cut a circle for the bottom fabric.  I used an old tree skirt my mom made as a pattern.  It's not perfect but it worked.

Step 3(below): Lay your top and bottom pieces together (right sides together, wrong sides out).  Pin the two in place so that you are ready to sew them together.  Make a 1/2'' seem around the circle.  Then cut off the excess fabric.

 

 

Step 4:  Fold the tree skirt into fourths, so that you have a straight line to mark on one of the edges.  (This would be like drawing the radius on your skirt from the center to the edge of the circle). Mark the bottom (keep in mind this is the inside of your skirt and the markings won't show after you turn it right side out) of the tree skirt.



 Step 5: Unfold your skirt and mark a circle in the center of your skirt. (This is where the tree trunk will be).  I used a bowl for my circle.

 

 

 

 Step 6:  Sewing.  You will be sewing from the circle's edge to the small circle you drew in the center of the skirt along the radius line you first drew.  (Does that make sense?)  Do not sew on the line but 1/2'' to the left or right of the line.  See picture below.  Hope that helps...

 Continue sewing 1/2'' outside the radius line and around the small center circle's line.

 Continue sewing back down the other side of the radius line until you get to about 8' or more' from your outer seem.  This will be the hole that you will use to turn your tree skirt right side out. (Not sure if you can see that in the pictures below...tried to zoom in but my flash is awful).

 

 

 Step 7: Starting from the edge of your tree skirt, cut along your radius line and around your center circle line.  See below.

Step 8 (Finale!): Turn your tree skirt right side out.  Sew up the hole.

And you are done!  Ready for Christmas yet? 
Note: I personally will be adding some type of lace or frill to the edge of my skirt.  This may happen later...

Burlap Monogram Christmas Stockings DIY

Since we are expecting our twin boys at Christmas time, I figured I should probably make them stockings for Santa to bring them some fun goodies on Christmas Eve.  I made the rest of our stockings last year and luckily thought ahead enough to purchase fabric for new additions later.  I loved the way they turned out and hope you do too.  What I love best is that the burlap is forgiving.  If you don't cut it just perfect, it moves and stretches.  And felt is great because you don't have to worry about it's hem too much.

First Step:
Purchase your material.  Figure out how big you want your stockings and multiply that by how many you're going to be making.  Don't forget there's a front and a back side to your stocking.  I bought/ gathered:
-3 yards of Red felt (I wanted to make sure I had enough for a tree skirt later...just started working on that...keep you posted).
-3 yards of burlap (this left me some extra too)
-1 yard of Christmas material ( you could buy 1 yard each of different Christmas material if you want to make a matching tree skirt too or you could just get one yard total and mismatch or whatever)
-a spool of rick rack (ribbon for hanging the stockings)
-Red thread
-buttons
-a good pair of scissors
-tacky craft glue
-a needle

Second Step:
Cut your red felt the size you want your stockings (I used an old Christmas stocking as a pattern).  Cut a front and a back (it's best to fold your felt in half and just cut the front and back together).

Now cut your burlap stockings (front and back-fold your material in half) about 1/4" larger.  Your felt stockings are the lining and the burlap is the outside stocking (yes, this is a two layer stocking...burlap is itchy and it gives, wouldn't last long as a Christmas stocking on it's own...so, I made a felt lining).  Tip:  a good way to cut burlap straight is to pull one of the threads tight and then cut along the thread (it makes the line or thread more visible).

Once you've cut your lining stockings and your burlap stockings, cut a 3" x 3" square of felt.  This will be your piece that you sew buttons on for the monogram.  

Cut any decorations you'd like out of felt for the top front of the stocking.  I did a heart, tree, star, mittens, holly berry leaves, and a square present then embellished them with buttons and other trimmings.

Lastly, cut about 4-6" x the width of your stocking of your Christmas material.  My stockings were about 8 inches across so I cut my Christmas material at about 6" x 8 1/4". 

Third Step:  Monogram squares
Play with some buttons until you get your letters looking the way you want them to on your red felt square.  Once you have them in place, use tacky glue to attach them to the felt.  After a few minutes they should be dry enough for you to sew them on with needle and thread.

Fourth Step: Sewing
Now it's time to sew your red felt stockings front to back.  You won't have to flip the stocking inside out, I left mine just the way I cut them with a small hem.  Remember not to sew the opening shut.

Sew the top hem of the back piece of burlap.  The hem will be hidden inside your stocking once you sew the back to the front so don't worry about trimming it up.
(I tried to upload a picture of this but no luck, here's the next best thing)

(note the back-the burlap on the left in the picture- that's what I meant by making a hem)

Fifth Step: Pinning
Take your Christmas fabric and fold it over in half hot dog style, then fold where you would do a seam over (I was lazy and didn't hem my Christmas fabric because it will be hidden).  Tuck it on to the top of your front burlap stocking and fold over a piece of burlap about 1/2" in size.  (I know this sounds confusing, just look at the picture it's worth a million words).  Pin your burlap and Christmas fabric in place.

Now, pin your monogram square and embellishment (your tree, star, gift, snowflake, holly berrys or whatever you are clever enough to come up with) in place.

Ready for the next step?

Sixth Step: Sewing the burlap

Start by sewing your monogram square to the burlap.

 

Next sew on your embellishments to the front of the stocking.

Hand stitch any buttons or ribbon onto the embellishment.  (IN the picture you see a square, after I sewed it on I made a bow out of rick rack and sewed that to the top of the square with a button to make a present)

That's it for the front for now....

More pinning, then more sewing...almost done though, wooohoooo!  Pin the front of your stocking to the back of your stocking wrong sides out.

 

Now, you can sew your burlap stocking sides together, I left about a 1/4" hem.

Seventh step: Finishing touches
Sew on about 2 inches or so of rick rack or ribbon to the  side hem of the burlap stocking. (see below)  I made several passes with the machine to ensure that the ribbon would hold up our stockings.

 

Now it's time to flip your burlap stocking right side out.  Then tuck the red felt lining inside the burlap stocking.(Not a very good description or picture...hopefully, you get the idea though).

 

Congratulations!  You are done!  Now you just have to do that a few more times to make one for each member of your family...  good luck!  Let me know if you have questions!

 

 

Felt Doll Quiet Books

I made these books for a LOOOOOOOOONG car ride to entertain my girls.  I had lots of felt and fabric downstairs, so I thought what the heck and got the creativity going.  Sorry there's no tutorial, I made these before I entered blogland.

I made the outside look like little suitcases with handles and buttons to help keep the books closed.

 To make things interesting I made a boy book and a girl book.  I handstitched their faces and used a sewing machine for the rest.  Each book has two pockets on the left to hold shirts and accessories and bottoms.




Here's the girl wardrobe.  Mostly princess attire and church clothes.  I figured the boy could share his clothes since the body patterns are the same.

The boy wardrobe was WAY TOO MUCH FUN!  I made a church outfit, an every day outfit, a pirate outfit, a football uniform, and a farmers outfit.  Ironically, my little 3 year old loves the boy book better.  She loves the pirate outfit the best.  I do too.




I kept the body pattern that I used for the books so that way I could make more outfits later.  I still have to make some shoes, bags, scriptures, sword, and football...the posibilities are endless.  And it really is too much fun!

The 2-hour Long Skirt

The 2-hour Long Skirt

Being my very first post, I hope you all forgive me if this is unclear.  I wanted to show off my new long yellow skirt that I made in just two hours this last weekend.  Being very pregnant with twins and only 22 weeks along, I realized, "hmmm, most of my clothes are going to be shrinking...better buy bigger, non-shrinkable clothes".  Okay, okay, I know my clothes aren't getting smaller, but a girl can blame it on her clothes instead of her waistline, right?  Especially, when she's pregnant...  with Twins!!  That's my excuse for everything.

Okay, so now that you've all seen my skirt...now for the tell part.  I made my skirt longer to hide my beautiful varicose veins, but I think a shorter skirt made this way would be SUPER cute.  Maybe after pregnancy I'll make a shorter version and get those veins removed and show my legs in public again...we shall see.

How to make the 2-hour Long Skirt (or short skirt...your choice)

Step 1: Buy 2 yards of cute fabric (mine cost me $5 at Jo-Anns) and 1/2 yard (or more, if you are making more clothes with a stretchy band top) of 4-way stretch fabric.  The type of stretch fabric I bought was at Jo-Anns and was next to the Jersey Knit fabric in the Performance/Dance fabric section.  It cost $16.99 a yard, but I did have a 40% off coupon...big save.  It's nice and thin but will last lots of wear.  Not that I'll be doing any performances or dancing in this skirt, but what works, works...right?

Step 2: Cut your belly band out of that wonderful stretchy fabric.  I made mine wide enough to go around just below my belly bump (so where my hips should be) and gave it a little extra for seams and growing room.  I made it 10 inches wide so when it's folded over it's around 5 inches (this will be the very top of your skirt). 

Next, cut your cotton skirt fabric the length you want your skirt, plus an extra inch or so for a bottom seam. I made mine longer, but it's up to you. My fabric was 43" wide, so I just cut a little off of that for the length.  I left my width at 2 yards so when I sew it it will gather and give me a little volume to my skirt.

Here's the two cut pieces together, shown folded how they'll be sewn.

Step 3:  Now for the sewing part.  I'm not a professional seamstress, nor have I made anything for me to wear since high school...but, here's what I did:  Sew the skirt's bottom hem.  I folded the bottom over about an inch or so and just did a plain old straight stitch.

Step 4: Now sew the side seam of the skirt.  I used a straight stitch.

 Step 5: Now take a break from the skirt part and work on the belly band part.  Keeping your band folded hot dog style (yep, that's a teacher term) with the right side of the fabric facing out, fold it now hamburger style so that you can sew the seam together.  I used a straight stitch.  See picture below.  Then set the band aside again.

 Step 6:  Here's the tricky part (there is another way to do this)...along the top of your skirt sew a loose straight stitch (set your thread length as long as you can...my sewing machine goes to a 4).  Don't sew your top together but just sew in a big loop.   This is so that you can gather your skirt and make it all bunchy on top.

 Pull the bobbin thread along your skirt top to gather your stitch.  Work your gathers around the skirt so that they are nice and even.  This will make your skirt top sinch in a bit so you'll need to try it on before tying off your thread.  Tying of the thread will keep the gather in place.  Before you tie it off, slip your skirt on to make sure that it will fit over your tooshy and hips.

 Step 8: Now for the fun part...NOT!  Attach your belly band to your skirt.  Be mindful of keeping the seam on the inside of the skirt so you'll tuck your skirt into your belly band, keeping the right sides of the fabrics together.  I pinned the skirt and band together in just a few places before sewing because you have to stretch the band as you sew it to the skirt.  (The skirt top is wider than the belly band unstretched (is that a word)...if you don't stretch the band you'll be left with extra skirt and no band)  So, stretch the band as you so trying to keep it even so your gathers will be even when you're finished.  Man that sounds confusing...my apologies.

 Last step: flip your band right side out and Badaboom, you got a new skirt.  Feel free to ask questions...  I did.  Thanks Jessica for your help!!!!