Gelie Beans and Sparkly Things: No Sew Ruffle Christmas Tree Skirty DIY

im crafty. even before pinterest, i was crafty. anyways, i threw out our old tree skirt (i believe there was a dog pee incident) and have been on the hunt for a new one, which deemed harder than i thought. im super cheap, and thought spending $25-50+ on a tree skirt is ridiculous, especially since my dogs use it to snuggle with anyways, so when i saw this, i knew i was in luck. and the whole thing only cost me $6 in fabric and cord. i had the rest.

My DIY instructions for a no-sew ruffle Christmas tree skirt

you will need:

-an old tree skirt (i used a mini one- we have a small tree!)

-2 yards of fabric of your choice. (a FULL sized skirt will need 4 yards, but my skirt was a mini one) i used the same print in red and green. you will have left overs!

-a hot glue gun

-LOTS of hot glue sticks

-a good pair of scissors

-an exacto knife (it can be dull)

-cord or ribbon

-a clear fabric ruler (or anything to help you measure the width of the fabric strips)

-space to spread out

-time. and a lot of it.

to create the ruffle strips, keep the fabric folded in half. this will make your life way easier. using your ruler and exacto knife, score the fabric in 2" widths. (if you are doing a big, full size tree skirt, i recommend 3-4" wide strips)

once you have scored the fabric, cut on the mark you made, creating long 2" wide strips of fabric. repeat this until you are done with all 2 yards of fabric.

you should end up with a big pile of fabric strips.

now your ready to ruffle!

take a strip of fabric, and glue it onto the bottom of the tree skirt on the back. this will secure it to the existing skirt, and help you start your first ruffle. simply pinch/ fold over the fabric so it creates a 'ruffle' and glue it down. i glued the backside down first, then the folded part second. its kind of trial by error (or success!)- once you get the hang of it, it goes by way quicker!

continue all around the bottom of the skirt. when your fabric strip runs out, just add another one, starting the same way. glue it down first, then create the 1st ruffle. once you get the the other edge, glue the fabric down on the back again. this just creates a clean edge for you to attach the ties onto later!

be patient. this is a LONG process, i recommend watching a few movies, or diving this up into a couple afternoons! when you reach the top, once you get the top layer of ruffles down, just fold over the top and glue down so the area the will go essentially up to the tree is 'clean'.

for the ties:

take a piece of cord (or ribbon) and tie a knot on the end. i glued my ends to that they wouldn't fray. you will need 6 of these for a small tree and 10-12 for a larger skirt.

flip your skirt over, and start at the top. on each side, glue down a cord (not the knotted end!) close to the edge . i laid mine out to that i knew which direction to glue them (see pic)