This year I’m determined to add the most elusive piece of my holiday decor and I think I’ve finally found it. 

The perfect heirloom tree skirt. 

There are tons of great ones from Pottery Barn that are right up my decor style alley, but I am just not interested in paying $200 for a tree skirt. I’m sorry. 

But what I like about the Pottery Barn ones is that they are just so simple! A solid color with some accent quilting on them – obviously my first thought was:

I can totally make that! 

So today I’m showing you my step by step process to make a Chrismas tree skirt as well as a few different ways to take a simple tree skirt pattern and make it your own! 

Materials

2 yards of fabric for the top
2 yards of fabric for the backing
3/4 yard of fabric for the binding
High loft batting 
Matching thread
Scissors
String
Ruler
Sewing machine
Ties 
Cardboard box

How to make a simple tree skirt

Create a template

Depending on the size of the tree you have, you’ll have to decide on a size. We’ll go into standard tree skirt dimensions later on in the article, but right now all you need to know is how tall is the tree?

Once you know, you can create your template for the tree skirt. 

For trees under 7’, aim for a diameter of about 48”, and for trees over 7’ aim for a diameter of about 56”. 

Creating a template is super simple, start with a deconstructed cardboard box. If you are anything like me, you are ordering off of Amazon and Etsy non-stop during the Christmas season, so you’ll likely have some cardboard boxes hanging around the house somewhere. 

Open the box up flat and lay it on the ground. 

For this tutorial we are going to create a large compass to help us create the template using a couple of pens and the string. 

Tie a piece of string around a pen and measure out half of the finished diameter of the christmas tree skirt. Tie the other end to a second pen. 

For 48” diameter, cut the string 24” long, for 56” diameter, cut the string 28” long. 

Hold one pen to the cardboard as an anchor, and extend the second pen out the full length of the string so both pens are held vertical. 

Draw a 1/4” circle arc around the anchor pen, keeping both pens vertical and the string taught. 

Using a quilting ruler, draw dotted lines from the center out to the arc at a 90 deg angle from each other to create a 1/4 circle. 

Using the quilting ruler, draw a solid line 1/4” to the outside of the dotted lines to account for seam allowance. 

Cut the template out on the solid lines.

Trace and cut out the pieces

Grab your fabric and trace/cut out the following pieces:

• 4 copies of the template in the fabric for the top (the solid red in our case) – cut directly on the solid lines all the way around the pieces. 
• 4 copies of the template in the fabric for the bottom (the red plaid for ours) – When you cut the backing out, cut directly on the straight lines, but don’t cut directly on the arc, leave some wiggle room for basting later like the photo above. 

Sew the pieces together

Time to sew! Take all of 8 of the pieces you cut out in the previous step and head to the sewing machine.

Note: this is a great project for a beginner sewer! If you aren’t sure where to start with your sewing machine, check out our article on how to thread a sewing machine here. 

Starting with the top fabric, lay out the four pieces on the ground so they create a circle. 

Sew all four pieces together so you have a full circle.

Set the top fabric aside for later. 

Repeat the process with the fabric for the backing. When all sewn together, the backing and the velvet top should end up the same dimensions when laid on top of each other. 

Set both pieces aside.

Baste the tree skirt

Time to baste!

When you quilt the top (which is really just a fancy way of saying top stitching), you don’t want your batting to slip underneath the top fabric. 

This can cause pleats in the top that distract from the quilting, or can cause sections of your top to not end up with batting underneath it. 

Basting keeps all of your layers secured together temporarily until you can finish your quilting and lock it all in place. 

My favorite method of basting will always and forever be spray basting, so if you’ve never basted before, grabbing a can of spray baste will make it super easy for beginners. 

If you’ve never spray basted anything before, check out our spray basting tutorial for beginners here.

Cans are cheap and there’s almost no way to do it wrong. No slipping, and perfect results every time. 

Start with basting the tree skirt top to the batting, and then baste the backing to the opposite side of the batting.

The goal is to have the batting sandwiched between the layers of fabric. 

Spray each fabric layer and spread it out nicely so there are no pleats or wrinkles. 

Once all three layers are basted, take the whole thing over to the ironing table and iron both sides well. 

The iron will heat up the adhesive and re-adhere it so you don’t end up with air pockets by accident. 

Machine quilt

The next step is to machine quilt your top to get that beautiful creamy quilted texture we love. 

If machine quilting feels intimidating, I promise its as easy as sewing a straight line. 

Start with installing a walking foot – it is made to handle the extra thickness of the batting while giving you super pretty consistent stitches. 

Related:
The Ultimate Guide for Quilting Stitch Lengths

I wasn’t sure which color I was going to ultimately like for my Christmas tree so I decided to make three and decide later haha. 

And since I was making three any way, I decided to have some fun and do a different machine quilting design on each christmas tree skirt pattern. 

I went back to some of my favorite go-to designs from my easy quilting designs for beginners and decided on these three:

• Concentric circles (kind of like ripples from the center of the tree)
• Straight lines radiating out from the center like a starburst
• Herringbone – because who doesn’t love herringbone 🙂

For the sake of not overloading you with pictures right in the middle of the instructions, I’ll add all the quilty christmas tree skirt pattern machine quilting pics at the end of the article, be sure to check them out!

Trim up the edges

Time to take off all that extra batting and backing.

You can use either a rotary cutter or a pair of sharp scissors, carefully cut around the outside edge of the quilt top to trim away the excess backing and batting. 

To cut the hole in the middle, find a bowl in the kitchen that is a good size for the center, a cereal bowl is usually a good fit, I ended up using a colander myself haha. 

Once the center is cut out, using your ruler, cut a straight line from the center hole out to the edge of the tree skirt to give you an opening to slip around the tree base. 

We’re getting close! It’s slowly starting to look like a tree skirt! 

Binding and Finishing Touches

The next step is to bind the edges of the tree skirt. This will keep any raw edges from fraying, and stitches from unraveling in the future, locking it all in place. 

Because there are circles involved in this project, we want to use what’s called bias binding. You use and apply it the same way as regular binding but since it is cut on the bias, it has a bit more stretch to it which makes the round edges much cleaner. 

For anyone who hasn’t made bias binding before, you can get all the details from this great tutorial by Suzy Quilts, its super easy, just a little bit different from normal quilt binding. 

Apply the binding to the edge of the quilt.

My recent favorite way to bind a quilt is by machine, it’s super quick and takes all the tediousness out of binding.

When you have gotten to wrapping the binding around the front of the quilt and sewing it down to finish, be sure to slip in your ties to make a closure for your christmas tree skirt. 

I loved the idea of wooden buttons for this one, so I used some black elastic and slipped it under the binding as I was top stitching it down. The elastic then gets folded over to secure under the buttons. 

A quick and easy way to polish off a pretty tree skirt while giving it a little bit of a modern farmhouse look. What’s not to love about that?

Once the binding was finished up, all I had to do was hand sew the buttons on it was all done!

Altering this Christmas tree skirt pattern

There are many great ways you can take a simple christmas tree skirt pattern like this one and dress it up to make it all your own, here’s a few of our favorites:

• Adding fun trim
• Using different closures
• Fancier machine quilting
• Piecing the top to be more patchwork style

You can check out a few of the ways I altered this fun design in my blue and green versions of this tree skirt pattern, simple changes can make a basic pattern more fun and personalized to your exact decor style. 

Standard size of a tree skirt

There are two standard sizes for Christmas tree skirt patterns:

• 48” in diameter for trees under 7’ tall
• 56” in diameter for trees over 7’ tall

It must be said though, trees come in all different sizes so it only makes sense that a tree skirt should too when the need arises!

While we’ve included the two common standard dimensions for this tutorial, you can certainly adjust based on your tree. 

Fun fact, my dad has a lofted front room to his house, and every year he gets a 2 story tall tree (yes you heard that right). They have to push the tree over to the open loft and go to the second floor in order to decorate the top half haha. 

Because they get such a large tree, a standard size tree skirt will just disappear under it. 

If you need to make a larger (or smaller!) christmas tree skirt pattern because of a special case like this, aim to make the diameter of the tree skirt about 4-6” larger in diameter than the widest part of the tree. 

This will leave you with a nicely proportioned tree skirt for your super awesome tree. 

What is the purpose of a tree skirt?

A christmas tree skirt is used for a few different reasons, it acts as it’s own decoration to create an anchor at the base of the tree and makes for a designated softer surface to place presents on. Some of its more practical uses also include covering up some seriously ugly christmas tree stands, and catches stray pine needles here and there. 

The christmas tree skirt has been around almost as long as the actual christmas tree stand itself, making its debut around 1880. 

Ever since it has been a staple in the christmas decorating season and can be found in many shapes, sizes, and designs. 

While there have been many trends lately for the christmas tree collar which acts more as a decorative band that simply hides the tree stand without extending any further into the room, the christmas tree skirt will likely remain in our christmas decor boxes for generations still to come. 

Regardless of whether you use a this simple tree skirt pattern, a collar, or anything else, make it the prettiest you can this christmas season! And if you liked this tutorial and want more of them, be sure to sign up for our email list below. You’ll get email updates any time we have new projects and tutorials released, as well as immediate access to our free quilt pattern vault!

Now on to those close ups of the tree skirts I promised!