Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Coffee Bag Tree Skirt


Yes, it's another post about Christmas crafting with burlap sacks.  That even sounds weird when I type it. I kind of feel like a hobo.  So, in the attempt at making a neutral tree skirt for our very non-neutral tree I decided on coffee sacks.  Little bit of back info here Julee and I bought a bunch of coffee sacks several months ago from our local coffee shop and I've just been sitting on mine.  But they really are a perfect thing to use for this, durable, large and super cheap.  I had some help from my husband on this because I hate math.  Every time I've tried to make a circle skirt or tree skirt I've screwed it up somehow.  So my husband cut this out for me, because he loves math :) This is how we did it. 

First measure your bag.  I cut mine open along the bottom and side seam to make a large piece of fabric.
Cut the largest size square that you can get from your fabric.

Fold it in half and then in half again to make a triangle. Tie a string that reaches to the middle of the triangle to a marker..  Hold the string end at the upper corner and drag your marker from the middle across, making an arc.  Hopefully you can see form the picture what I'm saying.

Cut along the marker arc.

Measure how large you want your top hole to be and make a mark.  Use the same string and marker method to make a smaller arc at the top and cut.

I chose to ind the edges of my tree skirt with some homemade quilt binding.  You can also buy some already made at the craft store if you like.  To make your own cut some strips of fabric about 3 inches wide and as long as you can get.  You can sew the strips together to get a longer piece.  Fold the strip in half long ways and iron.

Open the strip up and the fold each side into the center, press.

Fold in half long ways again and press.  You now have quilt binding.

Sandwich the skirt between the binding and pin well.  Stitch close to the edge making sure to catch both sides of the binding.  Finished!!

Total this skirt cost me $3 too make.  I had the fabric for the binding on hand already.  You could leave the edges unfinished but burlap has a tendency to ravel.

Keep checking back for more fun, thrift ideas for crafting with burlap and coffee sacks!