An easy reversible Christmas tree skirt

A few years ago, my Nevada daughter sent me the gorgeous fabric you see above.  You can read about this fabulous gift, and why I was so thrilled with it,  here: A gift with possibilities.  I knew that whatever I chose to use it for, it should be a project that would showcase the beautiful illustrations.

Last year after Christmas I decided that I would like to make a Christmas tree skirt from this fabric.  As is typical with me, however, I forgot all about it until it was time to put the Christmas tree up this December.

I wanted to make the skirt reversible as I thought a double layer of fabric would look nicer and hold its shape better, though I doubt I will ever use the other side.  Here is the fabric I chose for the reverse side:                       ⬅

I looked a bit in some Christmas books and online and sort of cobbled together an easy technique for making the tree skirt.

First, I obviously had to make my fabrics into large circles.  I had just done something fairly similar when cutting a circle for the top part of a chef's hat, so it was familiar.  I folded my first fabric from top to bottom, then from left to right to form a square, and pressed it well.  I measured from the corner to one edge of the folded square (where the arrow is pointing above).  This measurement was just over 18 inches, so I decided to work with 18 inches. 

I worked my way around the square with a yardstick, measuring and marking 18 inches from the right corner all around the square, using a water-soluble marker.  Then I connected the dots to form a curved line, and cut on that line.

(There are other ways this measuring can be done; Gooseberry Patch suggests using a string of your desired length and tacking it to the folded corner with a thumbtack to hold it taut while you move the other end of the string along and make your markings.  Sort of like a compass you used to make curved lines in Geometry class back in the day.)

I then unfolded the resulting large circle and used the folds that I'd pressed in to help me eyeball the center of the circle.  I then used the lid of a large glitter container -- 2 inches or more -- any round object of similar size would do -- to draw a circle in the very center.  This would be the hole for the tree trunk.  Then I cut along one of the folds to this circle and cut out the circle.

I placed my cut fabric circle face down on the backing fabric, which I had laid out face up -- so that the right sides of the two fabrics faced one another.  Then I used the cut circle as a pattern to cut a matching shape from the backing fabric.

Putting the skirt together was easy.  I pinned the two circles together well and stitched all the way around the cut edges using a 1/2 inch seam allowance and leaving a 6-inch opening to turn the tree skirt right side out.   I trimmed the seam allowance of the small circle down a bit and carefully clipped into the curved edge, not going through the stitching.  I also snipped off the corners of the tree skirt where the curved and straight edges of the bottom formed right angles.

Then I turned the tree skirt right side out (making sure to poke out the corners to make them nice and square) and carefully pressed it, then hand-stitched the 6-inch opening closed.  I had actually planned to topstitch around the entire tree skirt, stitching up the opening in the process, but I decided that topstitching might detract from the fabric design, and I just didn't want to do that. 

So I pressed it well one last time and arranged it around the base of the Christmas tree, covering the stand and just overlapping the edges as desired.  It actually took far longer to write about making the skirt than it did to do the project.  I would say it took maybe an hour and a half from start to finish.

And there you have it -- my Holly Pond Hill Christmas tree skirt.  I love it!