Hi everyone, Julie here from The Queen Bee Clotherie with a free tutorial (and giveaway!) for making a stripwork ruffled Christmas tree skirt!
If you are wanting to add some ruffle-y goodness to your holiday decor, look no further than the Create Kids Couture blog. After you've made Robin's free tutorial for the gorgeous ruffled stockings (don't forget to submit your creations to the Flickr Group with the tag Stocking), pick out some coordinating fabrics and sew up one of these super cute ruffled tree skirts! This skirt is designed for a medium sized tree, about 6-7 ft tall.
Oh okay, I admit, she was a (somewhat) unwilling participant in this photobombing, but my kids were all at school so I couldn't dress them up and pose them with the tree...
Materials:
*Fabric 2 yards for the skirt(I used Michael Miller cotton in 4 different patterns at 1/2 yard each)
*Fabric 1-1/4 yards for the ruffles *Thread
*Rotary Cutter (or scissors)
*Ruler
*Ruffler Foot (optional but makes the job much easier IMO)
*Serger (for rolled hem)
Step 1: Cut your tree skirt fabric into 16 pieces that measure 21" (L) x 9" (W) making sure that the print on your fabric is facing the right way (wouldn't want any sideways pictures!) I used 4 different fabrics so I cut out 4 strips of each print for a total of 16 pieces.
Step 2: Cut your ruffle fabric into 14 pieces that measure 3" (L)x 42" (W). You are going to end up with 2 rows of ruffles, so I used 7 strips in one fabric and 7 in another fabric, but you could do all 14 the same.
Step 3: Sew your skirt pieces together until all 16 pieces form a continuous line. Press the seams over to one side with your iron and topstitch (optional) This just gives it a nice finished look. Set aside.
Step 4: Sew 7 of your ruffle pieces together until you have one continuous line. Sew the other 7 ruffle pieces together. You should now have 2 long lines of fabric, plus the long line of skirt fabric.
Step 5: Get comfy, because you are going to be sitting here for awhile at this point! Roll hem around all 4 edges of all 3 long pieces.
Step 6: Attach your ruffler foot to your machine. If you don't have one, you probably should! Most people have a love/hate relationship with theirs.... for this project I love mine, but they are notoriously imprecise so if you want to know more about them, this document called "The Ruffler... Unruffled!" has everything you need to know. It is a free downloadable PDF authored by CarlaC Dolly Designs and Scientific Seamstress and it can be found here: http://www.youcanmakethis.com/products/free/free-the-ruffler-unruffled.htm
Step 7: Ruffle both pieces of ruffle fabric at about a 2:1 ratio (use the guide mentioned above to help you achieve this, or just fiddle around with a scrap piece of fabric until you figure out what your adjustments need to be). I ruffled my pieces right down the centre of the strips. One thing that I have learned the hard way is that when your ruffler foot is doing it's business, it vibrates and rocks the machine so much that it will loosen off the screw that holds your presser foot arm on. Periodically stop ruffling and check to make sure the screw is still tight otherwise you may end up having your needle out of alignment which causes it to break rather spectacularly.
Step 8: Sew the bottom ruffle onto the skirt piece having the gathered portion about 1/2 an inch up from the bottom hem (pictured below). Then sew on the 2nd ruffle just up from the top of the first.
Final step: Ruffle the top of the skirt (which is going to wrap around the tree trunk) at about a 3:1 ratio (inner circle will be around 48" once completed). Wrap it around the tree and make yourself a cup of hot cocoa, you're done!
And there you have it! If you like this tutorial and giveaway, please pin it, like it, share it! Thanks so much for having me!
Like this tree skirt??? Win it!!! Enter below!!!
