I found this great tree skirt on, you guessed it, Pinterest, and I just had to do it! Little did I know it would be the biggest undertaking of the YEAR!
First off, you can see the original post from the pin here. It's a way cute blog, and her post encouraged me to try one myself. However, I must have had a bigger skirt than her, or I was way more greedy with my material, well...just keep reading...
I used an old silver tree skirt we have had packed in with the decorations for years. I purchased my burlap. Now, I have a ton of burlap. I always have. I've been using burlap in my projects for about four years already. Little did I realize the burlap craze would deplete the stores of said burlap. Silly me...
Anyway, I had to travel about an hour away to a Hancock Fabrics to get the "good" burlap. If you have ever worked with it, you know that burlap will "shed" and fray like crazy. What I bought was not on purpose, it's just what was out there. I had a 50% off coupon, which was good, because this was a more expensive kind. It did not shed, it did not fray..much.
I already had tons of muslin fabric. I followed Ashley's instructions, but I may not have done her justice. I started with the row of Muslin, then Burlap. It was really easy to glue, bur I did suffer some burned fingers once in a while...
I got my first four rows done and this is where the trouble began, I guess. I wasn't very liberal with my material. I ran out almost completely. Now, since burlap all comes in different colors, I didn't have any that matched...of course. What I did have was some red burlap. I had to improvise. I wish I had been able to foresee the way this was going, I would have been able to plan my color scheme better. Oh well, this is what I worked out.
After the first four rows, I made another row of muslin, so I did two rows of red and muslin to "match" the first four rows. Then I used a thinner muslin and made a larger ruffle close to the middle, and used what I had left over of the original brown burlap to finish it off. Not too shabby, right?
I just feel it would have looked a little better with the colors interspersed a little, though, no?
Our tree stand is very big. It has a large well for water, and it is an adjustable stand. There's a foot pedal that you can step on while the tree is up and even decorated, to adjust the tree if it is leaning. So, it's BIG. That's why the skirt I used was so much bigger.
Pretty cute, though, right? My sister came in and saw it and immediately said "Oooh, I want one!"
My response?
"NO WAY!" I told her I'd rather give her mine that to ever do this project again. Maybe it's because I did it in the floor. And it took me hours...HOURS...to finish. I'm not kidding. Three days and about 5-6 hours each sitting. (If ever there was a time I wanted spiked Eggnog, this was it. For real.)
5 hours today alone to finish it. I think I got too particular on the ruffles, and that's what took so long. Had I been a little looser my fabric would have lasted longer, too, I think.
Oh well, you live and you learn. I hate to say I'll never do it again, because now I feel a challenge to myself to get it 'right'. Maybe my sister has one in her future, after all...
If you decide to do one, I'd love to see it. I know it's a little late in the season this year, but it's never too early to get a jump on next year!
What other projects are you working on for Christmas?
Have fun, and thanks for reading today!
Nanette
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