Our Christmas tree and our holiday decorations are traditional with a lot of red (my favorite color) and gold. Most of the decorations hanging on our tree are either vintage ornaments from my childhood or cherished memories. We've been married almost 30 years and for most of those, we've held annual Christmas ornament exchanges with family and friends. We have very few sets of matching ornaments as most is a unique one off's that hold so many memories of Christmas' long past.

Like our ornaments, our tree skirt has made its way under our tree for at least twenty years. While not a cherished holiday decoration like our ornaments, it does have some sentimental value. I made it when our oldest was just a baby but it was time to say goodbye and bring in something more stylish and current.

Easy Ruffled Christmas Tree Skirt From A Scarf

Inspiration struck one day while browsing the aisles at Michaels. They had pretty ruffled scarves on sale for $6.99. What I saw wasn't a scarf but Ruffled Christmas Tree Skirt. Before I get into how I recycled that old tree skirt, I thought I would share some holiday photos that to my surprise, Google+ enhanced and made sparkle.

These are a few of the vintage ornaments from my childhood. They bring back so many memories...



These are a couple cherished ones from our annual Christmas ornament exchanges. I collect the whimsical folk art Angels and Santas from the Boyd's Bears Folkstone Collection. The candles are always on the tree each year but never lit, for obvious reasons.

How to make a Christmas tree skirt using a ruffle scarf

Here is my original handmade Christmas tree skirt...


This is the ruffled scarf I purchased.


With the gold metallic side of my old tree skirt facing up, I pinned the scarf along the outer edge of the skirt and sewed it in place following the stitch line on the scarf.


I wanted the gold fabric underneath to be seen under the first ruffle and therefore sewed it in place along with the second stitch of the scarf rather than the hemline.


I sewed a basting stitch (largest stitch setting) on my sewing machine along the top hem of the scarf.


Very carefully, without breaking the thread, I pulled the top thread of the basting stitch on both ends and gathered the fabric into a ruffle until it was the same size as the opening at the top of the old tree skirt.


Next I pinned and sewed the scarf in place at the top of the old skirt.


If you look at the photo below, you can see that I left a ruffle unattached which will be a flap to conceal the buttons and the opening. Along the left side of the skirt I hand-stitched three large buttons. I didn't bother using nice festive buttons because they would be hidden.


On the wrong side of the fabric on the right side, under the ruffle, I made a loop with colored cording and sewed it in place.


And there you have it, a pretty tree skirt for under $7.00!


Update 2016: We've since simplified the tree by removing the ribbon and embellishments on the top. We've also scaled down our holiday decor and incorporated mercury glass into the mix. The Ruffled Christmas Tree Skirt looks even better now under the tree.


Lets play a game of Where is Rexy?  He thinks I made him a soft blanket to enjoy his cat naps.