DIY Felt Ruffle Tree Skirt

This year I am dedicated to spending more time at home crafting and loving on my family, then in line at a store and unnecessarily spending money. So, that means I am getting quite resourceful with my holiday decor. I mean, I did decorate a Christmas tree with paper lanterns.

That same tree was skirt-less. I can’t think of a bigger Christmas party tree faux pas then letting a tree go skirt-less…those ugly tree stands must be covered!

But, I think store-bought tree skirts are grossly over-priced. Two years ago, I made a ruched tree skirt from a round table cloth for a fraction of a store-bought tree skirt price. Last year, I enhanced that tree skirt with another table cloth layer. That skirt is rocking it on our living room tree.

For the party tree, I set out to make a free tree skirt from materials I have at home. Thankfully, I have slowly built an admirable fabric stash over the years from various home decor projects and Halloween costume making adventures. I happened to have several yards of white felt. If I didn’t have felt in my stash, the three yards needed for this project would still have been less than $10. Always buy your felt on sale, it regularly goes half off.

This free felt tree skirt is like a blanket of freshly fallen snow with pretty ruffled layers. All I used to make it is felt and my glue gun!

To cut the perfect circle I laid my felt on top of our round game table and cut around the edge. This felt round is the base for the skirt. I cut a slit toward the center and a smaller circle for the tree trunk in the center. For the ruffles, I cut long felt strips about 7″ wide, because I like big ruffles.

To make the tree skirt:

Getting Started: Start your first row of ruffles at the slit in the skirt.  You can start gluing about 6″ in from the outer edge, for 7″ wide strips.

Making the ruffles:

1. Put a 1-2″ bead of glue on the felt base to start your first row and press down the end of your first felt strip into the glue.
2. On top of the felt strip, put a 2″ bead of glue starting an inch in from the edge (it will start at the middle of your first bead of glue below the felt and end 1″ further).
3. Fold the felt back over into the glue.
4. On top of the fold and extending beyond it on the base felt, apply a 3″ bead of glue (2″ before the fold and 1″ after the fold on the base felt). Fold the felt down into the glue.
5. On top of the felt apply a 2″ bead of glue going back the other way. Fold the felt back into the glue.
6. Continue repeating above steps working around the tree skirt forming ruffles.

Starting a new strip: Unless you cut really long strips of felt, you will need to start a new strip once or twice as you work around.  Start it the same way as you started the original strip, making sure the tail gets tucked under the first ruffle.

Also, note as you work towards the center of the tree skirt, you may need to make your pleats closer together to get the same size ruffles, since you are turning a tighter radius.  On my inner circle, my beads of glue were only about 1.5″.

Drape your blanket of snow, I mean felt, under the tree. The big white billowing ruffles are the perfect finish to our party tree.

How do you skirt your tree?