A Homespun Christmas, Part 1: How to Make a Braided Tree Skirt with Old Sheets
This year, the theme of my Christmas decor is A Homespun Christmas. I am planning to make the decorations, using neutral colors and natural fibers, possibly with a splash of dark red small buffalo check linen. A week ago, I set up the tree to make sure that I got the scale of the ornaments correct for our tree. My husband questioned what I was doing, saying, “It’s not even Thanksgiving yet!” But I told him that I had to set it up to create Christmas content for my blog because I need to share it with you before December.
Last year was the first time that we had a Christmas tree in our eight years of marriage. I had been telling my husband for years that decorating for Christmas was really important to me, and last year he created a budget item for decor. My largest purchase was purchasing a 6.5’ Stratford Spruce Christmas tree with clear lights from Balsam Hill, taking advantage of their 50% sale. We didn’t put many ornaments on it last year—we hung a few of the ornaments that we had from earlier in life, and I bought some candy canes for my 5-year old to put on the tree, and that was the extent of the tree decorating. My favorite part of having a Christmas tree is the lights, anyway, so I was perfectly happy. I didn’t even take the time to “fluff” the branches as Balsam Hill recommends, but I do plan to do that this year!
After I set up the tree last week, I began considering what type of tree skirt I wanted to make. I considered using a rustic linen, but I wanted something a bit heavier. I considered making a quilted tree skirt, but then the idea of making a braided-rug tree skirt came to mind. I have always thought that braided rugs are beautiful. My first memory of a braided wool rug is the one that my Grandmother had in their family room. I remember being fascinated when I was a small child as I looked at the colors and pattern. I hope that someday I can have a large braided rug, too. I love the old-fashioned, cozy appearance that they have. But for now, I am going to be using this technique with cotton fabrics for smaller projects.
I had the perfect fabric for this project: a set of white sheets that had worn out. I had not thrown them out because I knew that someday, I would have a use for them!
When I started this project, I was planning for it to take me a day or two, and I was planning to share the tutorial with you last week; however, it is taking me longer than I anticipated! Because I haven’t finished it, I am sharing with you the process. And once I have it completed, I will be sharing the tutorial with you.
I started by tearing the sheet into one inch strips and braiding it together. Once I had a few strips braided, I started sewing and left an opening in the middle to slip over the base of our tree. Our tree comes apart so easily that I will quickly disassemble it to place the skirt over the base.
I sewed until the skirt had about a 6” radius from the center of the opening. It was lying flat and was pretty stiff, and so I decided to make it a little more floppy by making the braid looser. Then, it got too loose and wavy, so I had to change the tension by braiding tighter again. Instead of tearing and braided all of the fabric before sewing, I alternated between tearing, braiding, sewing—mainly just to keep from getting into a tangled mess! Here is a picture of only a small portion of the strips that I tore one night!
And while I was tearing strips and braiding that night, I enjoyed the company of our dog.
I found that tearing the fabric, braiding, and then sewing in cycles, has somewhat helped my hands from getting too sore from any one motion. While sitting and working on this project, I thought about the women in by-gone days who made braided rag rugs—back in an era when they had more time than other resources. I envisioned a homemaker sitting in her rocking chair by the light of the hearth in the dark of the evening, pulling strips from a basket to braid together, and stitching them together by hand.
For future braided projects, I hope to work on them in a more leisurely fashion instead of pressing to get a project done. I have fabric that I already have other ideas for, such as braided bowls and small baskets. (Current update: I have made the braided bowl/baskets, which you can read about here. I will also be coming out with a new tutorial for them in the next month or so.)
As mentioned earlier, I used an old white sheet set for the fabric. In addition to working around a large hole in the fitted sheet, I had already used at least 30” of it to make myself a kaftan-style nightgown earlier this year. I thought that the remaining fabric would be plenty for this project, but as it turns out, I actually ran out! I was contemplating other ways of making the skirt the size that I want it to be, but one of my aunts had a white flat sheet that she donated to the cause. Thankfully, I was able to finish the project as I wanted.
For the full tutorial with a video go to this blog post: