The holidays have arrived and it’s time to hang those stockings and trim that tree. While traditional holiday decorations are certainly festive, why not also add some of your own personal geekiness as well? If you can’t find the perfect tree skirt at your local craft faire or on Etsy, you should try making one yourself! A tree skirt pattern is incredibly simple and would be a great project for a beginner sewer/crafter. I’ll be walking you through how to make a very simple tree skirt, but first, let’s discuss how to integrate some geek into your project.
There are quite a few ways to add a touch (or more) of geek to your tree skirt:
- Use a geeky fabric.
- Use a mix of geeky fabrics and plain fabrics.
- Use a plain fabric and use ribbon, trim, paint, or markers to spell out a geeky word or make a shape/figure.
Geeky Fabric
If you’re going to use some geeky fabric in your project, it’s time to go shopping. Luckily, there are some great licensed fabrics available for purchase. One of the biggest fabric retailers, Jo-Ann Fabric, has a great selection of licensed fabrics, including whole series devoted to Star Wars, Marvel, Nintendo, The Walking Dead, and Doctor Who.
Photo Credit: Jo-Ann Fabric
Fabric.com also has quite a few licensed and general geek prints, including a whole section devoted to outer space.
Photo Credit: Fabric.com
If you can’t find a fabric featuring your own favorite character or fandom, head to Spoonflower.com. Here you can upload your own custom design and have it printed on a variety of fabric choices. The process can take a few extra days though, so place your order soon!
Plain Fabric and Trims
If you’re planning on mixing a geeky fabric with a plain one, I would recommend making sure they are similar materials. It can be very difficult to sew two pieces of fabric together when one is silky or shiny and one is cotton (which is what 90% of licensed fabrics are).
For a simple treeskirt made with a plain fabric, I would highly recommend using a felt material. This material is cheap, easy to find, stiff, and comes in large rolls. It would be very easy to cut this into the pattern below and you could then add your own designs without sewing a stitch. I drew Serenity on a tan felt just using a black Sharpie. You could pair this with the word “Shiny” made with a piece of ribbon or other trim for a quick and easy Firefly-themed tree skirt. You could even add a few layers of orange trim on the outside of the skirt to pay homage to Jayne’s infamous hat.
For your trims, you can use ribbon, bias tape, sequin trim, thin lace, or any other fun decorative trims that you can get your hands on.
Patterns
There is no shortage of tree skirt patterns available online. For a great compilation of 10 different DIY tree skirt patterns, check out this article from Tip Junkie. You can incorporate your own geeky fabric or designs into these general DIY patterns. Now, I’ll quickly walk you through how to make a very simple tree skirt. This diagram shows the basic shape and size that you want your final tree skirt to be in.
You can make this pattern in any size to fit the 10′ tree in your living room or the 10″ tree sitting on your desk at work. The diameter of the large circle should be wide enough to completely cover the width of the bottom branches of your tree.
Step 1: Cut out a large square piece of fabric. The square should be as wide as the diameter of your finished tree skirt.
Step 2: Fold the square in half twice so that you now have a square a quarter of the size of the piece of fabric.
Step 3: Use a yard stick or a piece of string to mark a quarter circle on the fabric. Place the ruler or string in the corner where the fabric is folded together and use a pencil to mark the radius of your circle every inch or so. Use a pencil to connect these marks into a quarter circle on the fabric with the folded corner at the center of the circle.
Step 4: Use fabric scissors to cut along the quarter circle that you drew. If you were to unfold the fabric now, you would have a complete circle.
Step 5: Before unfolding, cut a small circle on the folded corner where your tree trunk will sit. This circle should not be more than a few inches across (unless you have a very large tree).
Step 6: Unfold your fabric into one large circle which will have a small circle cut out of the center. Then cut a single line from the outside corner to the inner circle. This will be how you fit the skirt around your tree.
Step 7 (optional): If you are using a fabric that needs to be finished, use a sewing machine (or tape) to sew a hem around the entire piece of fabric. If your skirt does not need finishing (ie: if you’re using felt), then you can skip this step.
Step 8 (optional): If you’d like to add a closure along the straight line you’ve cut, you can add some button closures or ribbons. This will allow you to attach the circle together after placing it around your tree. You can also simply drape your skirt around your tree and skip this step.
Step 9 (optional): Decorate! This is where you can add details like the black pom trim below.
Step 10: Enjoy your new festive decoration and start shopping for some geeky presents to put under it!
Featured Image Credit: Dina Kampmeyer
