Hey, Christmas tree, cute skirt!

I picked up a slew of Christmas fabrics after the holidays last year with good intentions to have a pretty new tree skirt made in time for the holidays this year. I even had the pattern designed sometime in January! To no one's great shock, I didn't even start cutting or sewing until just a few days ago. Thankfully it came together quickly.

I love aqua and red together. Don't you? To me it says Christmas without beating you over the head with holiday spirit.

And who doesn't love gingham? I used my bias tape maker to produce a few meters of straight strip (i.e. non-bias-cut) binding and attached it by machine. This goes against my usual preference to hand sew, but seeing as I was finishing the binding while The Dear Sweet Husband was out buying the tree, time was of the essence.

For the backing I used a piece of remnant fabric my aunt gave me some time ago. Lately, we had been using it as temporary curtains in our kitchen, so I guess I know what my next project is going to be.

My favourite part is the closure I came up with at the back. See how some of the squares are positioned to overlap with one another? When they're aligned properly, you almost can't see the two halves coming together behind the tree. If you're going to try this detail yourself, be sure to clip and notch your corners very carefully and press very well before top stitching.

Obviously I started this before we had our tree, or our tree stand for that matter, so I had to guess at the sizing. I suppose the skirt should probably come up to cover the stand a bit more, but I'm totally fine with this. TDSH picked out one good looking stand!

When I have more time, I will stitch some circles to properly quilt the layers (just like on my regular quilts), but this will do beautifully for this year.