Christmas Tree Skirts

Just as you need a topper to grace the top of the Christmas tree, you need a Christmas tree skirt to grace the bottom.

The Skirt is often used to hide the Christmas tree stand, and to provide a nice ‘backdrop’ for the gifts that will go under the tree. Remember that the skirt will eventually be covered up with gifts. Therefore, the materials used to decorate the skirt must be flat and durable.

Materials:

· 45 inch Felt material. For the basic skirt, you will need about 4 yards. However, you may want 4 yards each of two different colors. One will serve as the base, and is usually green, red, or blue. The top piece should be white.

· Christmas Theme Iron-Ons. You can purchase iron-ons at any crafts store, or order them online. This is the easiest possible way to decorate your Christmas Tree Skirt. If you are really artistic, however, you may want to use cloth paint and paint your own. You can ‘print’ the designs on the material with transfer paper.

· Ribbon and/or gold glitter glue – used to decorate the edges of the skirt.

Directions:

1. Using the base colored felt, mark and cut a circle. A good way to determine how large this should be is to measure the diameter of the bottom branches of the tree. Cut this material in a diameter that is about ten inches wider.

2. Cut a slit from the outside of the skirt to the inside – to the center. This is how you will ‘wrap’ the skirt around the tree.

3. Cut the white felt about four inches shorter in diameter than the colored felt.
Cut a slit from the outside to the center of the inside.

4. Decorate the white felt, as you see fit. If you want to put any decoration on the outer edge of the colored fabric, this should be done now also.

5. You can tack the two pieces of felt together at the slits. Put the skirt around the tree by sliding it around the tree at the slit. Pull it up so that it hides the Christmas tree stand.