CHICKPEA SEWING STUDIO

This picture is the result of the Tree Skirt experiment conducted with the thick felt I made in the last post. I am happy that I had so little time to think about what I was doing, this way it was really spontaneous! It's minimalist and it hides the Uber-ugly plastic tree-stand underneath. We found a really European looking tree this year. It makes me  feel back at home. Unfortunately this kind of branches doesn't take well to electric lights. They are too far apart and the strands look a bit weird. So we chucked the idea.

This project take an hour at most if your felt is ready. (Read last post to see what this is about.) The total cost for the skirt was $9 with a 50% off coupon at Joann's. That fact alone makes me happy !

I used two yards of the white felt, one yard for each half circles. The felt shrinks a lot as it thickens so the skirt won't be 72 inches wide in the end. Once washed there is no risk to see anything through the material, it is completely opaque. Find the middle of each long sides  and place a pin. Tie a string to that pin as shown right. Make the string as long as you can to get a half-circle out of the cut of felt. You will use that string as a compass. On the other end of the string tape a disappearing ink pen, see picture below. Draw a nice half-circle holding the pin in one hand and keeping the string straight.

Make a smaller circle, mine is 3.5" radius close to the pin. Cut both half-circles on the line with pinked shears, regular scissors will do the trick too. From the left-over felt cut two bands, about 1.25" wide. I used pinked shears on one side of each band too. You will sew these bands on each side of one of the half-circle. My seam allowance is 1/4 in. and the seam length is 4mm (long), you are working with really thick layers of felt here.

The picture below gives a view of the sewn band. Although it might be hard to see that both sides of the band are sewn on the back. The buttons are sewn on the other half-circle. I used four vintage red buttons for each sides, eight in total. Which means that the button holes are on the thick two layers side. I used a simple seam reaper to cut the holes with no apparent problems.

By this point you should be able to button each side of the skirt and put it on the tree. It really goes quite fast and leaves you loads of time to sew on buttons, rickrack or even embroider it.

I decided, in part because of exhaustion, that mine would remain white as snow, as long as it's not covered in cat hair!