The Cutest Little Tree Skirt!

Handmade Holiday Decor

I looooove sewing up pieces that will be used in my home for the holidays. Right now stores are crammed with generic factory-made products… and while they are shiny and pretty, they don’t have that “special” handmade feel. 

This weekend I finally made the Giant Dresden Christmas Tree Skirt!! This pattern was designed by Carrie Actually. I absolutely love how it turned out- it’s SO HAPPY…. I mean… look at it! If you like to sew- I totally recommend trying this. I made some mistakes and modifications along the way, so I’m sharing them here to make your life easier.

Let’s start with the things I did right:

1. I used a luxe cuddle hide backing, which gave the tree skirt top a “puffier” more squishy look (you could also double up on your batting). 
2. When you are sewing your binding on, use a small stitch length to keep those curves uniform.
3. I decided to quilt mine on the longarm. This was a little more work, but it gave the piece more structure and dimension.

Aaaaaand now for the mistakes! 

MISTAKE #1: The Dresden template is very large (as the pattern name indicates), and I didn’t want to piece each petal. In order to make this possible, I folded the template to fit my yardage- which resulted in petals that were a little bit shorter. (Consequently making my life a lot harder…. so I definitely recommend following the pattern as written).

Why this doesn’t work: you end up with a very large opening in the middle…. too much space for the trunk. So….. I problem solved and made myself a template using string and a pencil to draw two circles. (Do you now see how much I complicated things???)  Once I cut this out, I was able to sew it to the tops of my petals once they were all put together. I DO love how I was able to keep the salvage of this print in the inner circle because it gives the piece a vintage look (but I would never do it this way again).

MISTAKE #2: The binding. As a quilter, I always sew the binding to the back of the quilt first, then bringing it around to the front of the quilt to top stitch.  Had I read the instructions more diligently, I would have learned NOT to do it this way with the dresden pattern. It is very difficult to keep your binding uniform around the curves (you’ll notice the transition between petals gets a little bulky). By sewing the binding to the TOP, then adding the finishing stitch to the BACK of the tree skirt- it would look more streamlined. When I make this again, I would use an invisible thread so the stitches would not be seen coming through the top of the tree skirt from the back.

I hope this encourages you to try this pattern out because it’s just so darn cute! 

DISCLAIMER: Once you make this, you will immediately feel the need to wear it as a cape. Perhaps it will be a new trend....