made – boho felt christmas tree skirt

I should have posted this Friday, but I confess that I didn’t have it finished. In fact, it wasn’t even made yet! In my head, I had made it a hundred times, but sometimes I just don’t know where an artistic project will lead until I am actually in the middle of it. 

I had originally planned to make the skirt out of aqua/teal colored felt. I was considering a Christmas decorating theme of pinecones, and I wanted to replicate the fifties pinecone motif popular on many items in that decade. Remember your grandmother’s plastic dishes?

I couldn’t find felt in just that perfect vintage green, and I also decided to change my theme to mercury glass. I knew then that a deep charcoal felt would be a great backdrop for a chipped glass and distressed metals palette.

 Using this photo of a Pottery Barn pillow as my inspiration, I went on a hunt for gray felt and ball fringe. The felt was easy; I found it at Walmart. The fringe was a different story. I know my inner Bohemian soul always gravitates toward fringe of any kind, but it just wasn’t clicking for the tree skirt. I can’t tell you how many stores I frequented and walked around their aisles for hours fondling the ball fringe before putting it back on the shelves. Clearly, I wasn’t arrested, so I came home with only the felt and a hope that some idea would come to me.

And it did. I found some white and cream fabric from my stash and made these funky little raw-edge flowers. Less cutesy than ball fringe but still free-spirited enough to satisfy my boho vision. These are so easy to make, and because they are stitched in place, they even hold up well in the wash. I’ve eve used them on dresses. You can check out my video tutorial to learn how to make them.

I folded a 38″ square piece of felt twice, then used the string & chalk method to draw a perfect circle hem. I spray-painted some old buttons with metallic paint, gathered some snips of trim, and plugged in my glue gun. The flowers were the only components sewn; the rest was all glued. Now I can’t wait to put up the tree!