What better way to start off this blog than to talk about one of my very first sewing projects, and to-date my only project to be entirely designed by me! Since this project was done in 2014, I do not have any pictures of the skirt in progress, so I'll try to give as detailed an explanation as I do have.
About three years ago, I grew tired of having to fight with my tree skirt to cover the tree base and floor protector (aka cardboard). I really love the skirt, so I did not want to buy a new one. Instead, I thought I could create an extension to sit underneath the skirt and give the added length. You can see the final product in this picture. The red is the original tree skirt - velvet on top and satin underneath so too luxurious to replace! The green is the extender.
About three years ago, I grew tired of having to fight with my tree skirt to cover the tree base and floor protector (aka cardboard). I really love the skirt, so I did not want to buy a new one. Instead, I thought I could create an extension to sit underneath the skirt and give the added length. You can see the final product in this picture. The red is the original tree skirt - velvet on top and satin underneath so too luxurious to replace! The green is the extender.
The first thing I had to do when designing this skirt was to determine how far out I wanted the green part to extend. I opted for about 18" to give myself plenty of room.
Then I created my pattern piece. Basically, I took a large piece of butcher paper and traced one panel of the red skirt extender. I then extended the lines out another 19" (adding in 1/2" seam allowance on both sides). Since I was using green velvet and silver satin for the extender, the fabric was not cheap. Thus, I did not want to use it for the entire area since it mostly would not be seen. This is the extender on its own:
I purchased tulle to be the center part of the circle since it would not be seen.
Lesson #1: This was a bit of a mistake, since tulle is a weak fabric that easily rips. I should have used a muslin or cheap cotton.
I also made sure to mark on the pattern a couple inches shorter than the red panel to allow for some overlap between the red and the green; I didn't want any tulle showing through! So then I created two pattern pieces from this one: an upper part for the tulle and a lower part for the good stuff.
I sewed the silver lining together into a circle, the green velvet into a circle, and the tulle into a circle. I didn't sew them completely into a circle. I needed an opening so I could put the skirt around the tree. If you look at the left side of the above picture, you can see where I used the velvet as trim along the opening.
Next, I sewed the lining and the fabric together along the outer edges. Finally, I folded in the seam allowance on the lining and the fabric along the inner edges and inserted the tulle in between. Then I top stitched it all together.
Voila! A finished tree skirt! And while I love it, I will probably do one more step on it this year.
Lesson #2: Attach the overskirt to the underskirt so that they don't move and show the tulle underneath.
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