SUPER EASY Mini Christmas Tree Skirt Tutorial

Last year or so, I found a cute Christmas Tree Skirt panel and bought it to make my mother-in-law a tree skirt.  When I got home, I panicked thinking I had no clue how to do that little circle in the middle except with bias tape.  I really hate using bias tape around curves.  I never get it perfect.  After churning through ideas in my mind, I finally came up with an idea I could do instead...and it was so much easier. 

My son loves loves loves Christmas...he's the kid who gets Christmas books from the library year round and keeps a mini tree in his own room.  I needed to make him mini tree skirt.  This method will also apply to larger tree skirts as well...I've used it on extra large, medium, and mini skirts with great results.

Here's what you need:

1 small plastic cup

90" of binding (the photo is red, but I switched to a green binding in the tutorial, so I hope you don't get confused)

2 12" pieces of fabric

1 12" piece of batting

 Layer your pieces like so: batting on bottom, backing fabric right side up, top fabric face down.

Use a ruler to mark an X in the center of your quilt.

Place the small part of your cup over the center X and trace around the cup.  For a full size skirt, I would use the mouth end of a 32 oz cup (like you get at sporting events).  Sew around the entire outline of your circle.

 Draw a line from the outside of your circle to the edge.  Make sure you mark your fabric will be going in the right direction if you are using a directional print (oops, I didn't!).

 Cut a slit along that line you just drew.

Use pinking shears and cut out your circle.  The pinking shears are important b/c it will keep your seam nice when you turn it out.

 Flip your top fabric around now...pillowcase style.

Iron your fabric  now and quilt as desired.  

After quilting, square up.

 Leave a 10"-11" "tail" on your binding (this will become your tie) and start attaching your binding to your tree skirt on the top side.  Start at the inner circle of your tree skirt, because that is where we will need our ties to land.  Attach the binding all around the skirt and leave another 10-11" on the other end of the circle.

 Now take your 10-11" binding tails and fold under one end and iron.

 Now fold up your raw edge about 1/4" and press.

 Fold once more and press to hide your raw edge.

 Use your machine and sew a seam down the side of your tails to create your tie.

Now you can hand stitch your binding to the other side and you're done!

This is super easy I think it leaves a much cleaner look than bias binding (at least at my skill level!).

If you prefer a circular skirt, you can just sew the inside and outside circles pillowcase style and then pull everything out straight and use binding to close up your slit from the inner circle to the outer circle.  Just remember to always use your pinking shears around the curves for best results.