Mini Quilted Tree Skirt

My amazing friend Caroline has a new Craftsy class out called the Quilted Tree Skirt, a beautiful patchwork project featuring jelly roll strips, foundation piecing, and handmade tassels. I love taking Caroline's classes because she's so easy to follow, and I always pick up a few new sewing tips from her that I can carry over to other projects. Since our family already has a special tree skirt that we put on our large tree each year, I decided to make a miniature version of Caroline's project. Whether it's the children's tree that my daughters decorate every year by themselves, the tiny tree I bought for their dollhouse, or the dyed bottle brush trees that I love to display on my sewing cabinet, we have lots of little Christmas trees around our house every December.

I took the paper pattern that comes with the class, taped it together at full size and then photocopied it at half size. Then I decided that I wanted to go even smaller and photocopied that smaller version at half size again. For my fabric panels, I sewed together 3 strips that were 2" wide. The print at the top ends up being smaller in the final version, but I didn't mind. I just made sure that my wedge piece was always aligned with the bottom strip whenever I was cutting.

Making things miniature is always fun, but it can definitely be tricky, especially in projects like this. Because everything was smaller scale, the gap in the center for the tree is non-existent -- the pieces just sewed over each other with no open space. I also needed to use 7 pairs of blades instead of 8 or there would be no gap on the side for the skirt to open. Once I finished sewing the blades together, I carefully went in with my scissors to cut out a hole in the center which came out as a slightly wonky star shape. It's not as pretty as Caroline's full size version, but good enough for what I needed.

I alternated colors on each of the blades -- red/pink vs. blue/green -- with lots of low volume fabrics in between to keep things light and bright. Since the skirt is so small, I decided against the button fasteners and tassels that are on the original pattern. Simple works best on something this tiny.

The skirt is backed in a pink and white print, and I quilted along all the horizontal seams in off-white thread.

This was such a fun project, and I enjoyed doing something a little different from the things I normally sew. You can sign up for the Quilted Tree Skirt on Craftsy right here if you'd like to make one of your own. Caroline has put together a wonderful class, and you definitely need to take a look at all her different versions of the skirt. They're absolutely beautiful! I'm not sure if I'm ready for Christmas yet, but this all definitely has me ready for the pre-season excitement of fall...

The Joy of Making

Every year in our home, we have the tradition of the Children's Christmas Tree. This little white tree, which belonged to my grandmother before she passed away, is decorated with colored lights and tiny wooden ornaments by my girls -- no grown-up help allowed. It's the one job that is especially their own, and they can hardly wait for the Thanksgiving leftovers to hit the fridge so that the Christmas decorating can officially begin.

In the past I've used a scarf as a last minute tree skirt, but this year I knew it was time to make something more permanent. I pulled out the rest of my Little Joys bundle by Elea Lutz for Penny Rose Fabrics, added a few La Creme Dots from Riley Blake Fabrics, and used a red and white scallop print by Bonnie and Camille for the binding. The wedge shapes were cut using a dresden ruler that I've had for ages, sewn together with a 1/2" seam between wedges.

I was completely winging it with this project, and though I've had my share of sewing disasters while improvising, I'm happy to say that this one was a complete success. It reminds me again why I love to sew. What a joy it is to make something with your own hands, and to make it exactly the way you've imagined it to be. What a pleasure to share that handwork with the people you love, to see their eyes light up over the something special you made for them. But then to know that it will become a part of your family's legacy, that your children will take it out of storage someday and show it to their children and say, "When I was a little girl, your grandmother made this for us. This is part of our family. This is how we celebrate Christmas."

I can't think of anything better than that.