Post 9: Bringing in the Holidays! Christmas Tree Skirt

A burlap Christmas tree skirt.  That was all I wanted for Christmas.  (Well, not really ALL I wanted, but all I wanted badly enough to make it myself!)  Every one I found either had something about it (a bow, a Santa Clause face, something flashing...) that just wasn't quite what I wanted or was a little pricey for a round piece of fabric.

Thus, the decision to make it myself came about.  I was a little weary of this at first, but surprisingly, it only took me a few hours to whip it together!  Here's what I did:

I bought some linen fabric and muslin from Joann Fabric (I used my text message 25% off and spent about $12)!

I decided what I wanted the skirt to look like and that I wanted it to be lined for a little extra weight.  I bought plenty of linen, so I just folded the piece over twice to cut the lining all at once. 

I measured from one central point on the fold to trace a circle.  This was about 21 inches in diameter.  I drew the circle in pencil and made sure to pin the fabric together so that it wouldn't move when I measured/traced/cut.

iPhone pictures really aren't the best, but here's another to show my half-circle traced out!

I cut out the circle, then folded it in half again.  Using a bowl, I traced an inner circle where the tree base would go and cut this out as well.  Then, I cut a slit on one side of the circle so that I could wrap the skirt around our tree.

I didn't take pictures of the next part, but it was pretty simple.  I unfolded the fabric and pinned the two pieces together all the way around.  Starting with the inner circle, I sewed a half-inch seam all the way around, leaving a small opening on one side of the skirt opening.  Flip that inside out, and voila!  Perfect (or about as perfect as I can do) circle!

Now, on to the fun part -- a ruffle!  I cut 5-inch strips of the muslin (double thickness again) and sewed them together the same way.

I flipped this inside out a little at a time until all of the seams were hidden.

Beautiful, right?

Nothing a little ironing can't fix!

Again, I missed the photo-op, but I took the lazy way out to make a ruffle from this long strip.  I fed the strip through my sewing machine faster than the machine would normally feed the fabric and made "bunches" that way (instead of sewing and pulling the thread and breaking the thread and crying and calling Grandma to help).

After the muslin was fully ruffled, I pinned it around the edge of the linen circle.

I fed this through the machine right down the middle until the ruffle was fully bound all the way around.

Here's what it looks like so far.  Now I just needed something to keep it together at the opening.

I looked all over, but we didn't have any large buttons lying around.  I could have gone to the store, but the project was going so quickly and it's so easy for me to loose interest in a sewing project that I thought I should find something that would work.

Alan had some washers in the garage that he didn't need, so I went with those!  Ta-da!!  Don't you love it?

Okay, I know.  Unacceptable.  I took some of the leftover muslin and hot glued it around the washers to make them look more like buttons.

One...

Two...

Three!  I added a few stitches to keep each one in place and I had homemade buttons!

I had some jute left over from a project a while back and so I wrapped some of that around each button as a loop to keep each one in place.

I tried sewing the jute to the other side of the skirt, but got a little frustrated when it just pulled through the thread.  I resorted to hot glue for this as well.

And here is the finished tree skirt!  (Just what I wanted!)

I think it turned out pretty good!

What do you think?

Like what you see?  Read about our next project here!

Post 8: The Gardening Mystery

Happy Thanksgiving!  What a wonderful reminder to be thankful and what wonderful things we have to be thankful for!

We came home to quite a pleasant surprise recently.  At first glance, you may be thinking, what was it?  I don't see anything out of the ordinary, just a house that needs some work.

Before you keep looking for a surprise package or a new visitor in that picture, let me let you in on a secret:

We have been known for many things.  We have been known for country-western dancing.

We have been known for awesome costume-making skills.

 

We have been known for baseball playing and piano playing, crafting arts and crafting tools.

But gardening... We are not known for gardening.  The plants we have had in the last year have either left this world we live in to be in a better place where they are watered consistently and in proper volumes or are probably weeds because even we haven't destroyed them.

My windowsill plants that are still hanging on!!

So we knew when we came home the other day that we had been blessed... big time!  It didn't take much to identify these mystery gardeners -- there is only one place to look for that!

Kylie's Grandparents

Let us show you a few before and after pictures so you can see the transformation:

Before

 

Before   After

Before (no grass)

After (grass!)

Before

After

Before

After

What a happy housewarming gift!  Thank you Grandma and Papaw for brightening up our home!!

With the weather getting colder, I'm really getting into the Christmas spirit.  For me, that means craft time!  Read about the tree skirt I made for our first Christmas in our home.

Post 7: Houswarming

Today's post is all about a party -- housewarming, that is.  We were so excited to finish our living room just in time to have our Houston friends and family over!  Check out our crowd!  (Can you tell that our family and friends don't like getting their pictures taken?  Feel free to blame me for unflattering pictures; I didn't warn anyone -- but I, personally, think everyone looks great!!)

We had lots of visiting going on!  I'd say the party was a hit! Here's a better look at the finished living room and entry-way!

Remember that green wallpaper?

Whew!  Much better!  What do you think?

Click here to read about the beginnings of our front yard transformation.