christmas tree skirt

This year, to increase the Christmas joy in our apartment, we got a real tree! This was a first for me in New York City and actually Jason’s first real tree ever. So I decided to make it a very special tree skirt. It’s just a large hexagon with one side unattached and the center cut out; each wedge of the hexagon is made up of equilateral triangles. I didn’t put this together as a tutorial but it’s pretty straightforward: I made each triangle 8 inches tall (I mastered using my long ruler’s angled markings!), and each wedge has 4 rows of triangles. I should have cut off more to make the hole larger, but live and learn! The end result is a large skirt, with a diameter around 5.5 feet—plenty of room for presents!

Between each wedge I did a small bit of welting in Kona Snow; I wanted some kind of border but didn’t want to fuss with piping. The backing is more Kona Snow, with the idea that its austere whiteness could go with a more demure tree in the future. I did use batting between the layers to give it a bit more substance and weight. The quilting lines radiate out from the center in alternating Christmassy green and red thread, which look fun on the white background, too.

I machine-stitched the binding entirely. The binding was cut on the bias but I mitered most of the corners and angles in the end. Still, it helped me get around the center of the skirt and was a technique I hadn’t done before. I used this tutorial‘s methods even though I was a bit suspicious of that last cut angle. I am not sure I would do it again this way—that last cut really isn’t precise enough—but wow it was simple!

I finished just in time for us to buy the tree and get it decorated! See more pics of our decorated tree plus a funny little video of our tree-trimming here!

8 Responses to christmas tree skirt

  1. Heidi says:

    I was looking for a relatively quick quilted tree skirt that still looked really good. Yours totally inspired me, I just have the binding left and I’m super thrilled with how it’s been turning out. I may just have it done in time to have under the tree by Christmas Eve, lol!

    • sk says:

      Ah, I did the math. If the equilateral triangle is about 8″ tall, then each edge should be about 9.25″. So you cut rectangles 9.25″ wide and 8″ tall, mark the halfway point of 9.25″ (4 5/8″) on the top, and cut from one bottom corner to the 4 5/8″ mark, then from the other bottom corner to the halfway mark, and that should get you equilateral triangles that are about 8″ tall.

      Alternatively, could cut the triangles in alternating directions, and waste less fabric. Kinda like with my dresden-plate-ish Xmas tree skirt: http://byov.blogspot.com/2017/12/how-to-circular-wedge-quilted-christmas.html

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