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Thursday, December 19, 2013

Felt and Burlap Tree Skirt

With 6 days until Christmas, I am done with my burlap tree skirt.
I'm finding out with three kids under toe, accomplishments come in small steps.
{I say "Yay!" for finishing it, even though the presents that I'm about to wrap will just cover it up!!!}




Here's what I started with (along with scissors, my glue gun, and about 3 yards of white felt)...

I folded the felt in half and placed my current tree skirt over it to use as a pattern to cut my half circle.
It looked just like this....

Then came time to fire up the glue gun and unroll my burlap (I used two of the 15 foot rolls pictured above).

(Please note that I was not trying to have perfect ruffles. If I did try to get them perfect, I wouldn't have EVER finished this project. Burlap is imperfect so, let your ruffles be too!)

After hot gluing the start of the burlap roll to my cut felt tree skirt, it all went something like this....

Glue (can you see it there on the felt?):

 Place burlap on the glue:

Pinch a section:


Fold the pinched section back over the part you just glued:

Glue the top of the fold:

Run to your kitchen (after you have burned your finger 100 times) and get a wooden stick to press the burlap down until it sticks enough to stay where you want it:

 Continue the entire way around your tree skirt, flip it over and place it under your tree:



I added burlap bows around my tree.

To continue my burlap and white theme, I used small rolls of white mesh and layered burlap ribbon on top before adding it to my tree.

We usually don't use the typical star topper. This year I added twigs and assorted glittery, long twig stems. And although it was referred to as 'tree hair', I think it turned out quite nice, and not hair-like at all.

Wha-la!


A little trick I learned this year after reading blog after blog of professional tree decorators, different size light bulbs! Who knew??? So simple...  here's the difference:
(Left tree- with the pre-strung lights only; Right tree- after adding two strands of extra large bulb lights.)
 I love the dimension and extra light from the large bulbs! Thanks {Vintage Revivals} for the tip!

And my Christmas wreath that I was soooo excited about weeks ago? I'll have it made for next year.....


(Just keepin' it real!)


Oh, and throw away that wooden spoon. You'll likely never get the glue off. If you do, let me know how!