Dresden Mini Christmas Tree Skirt Tutorial

Christmas is by far my favorite holiday to decorate for, so when I bought a mini tree for my sewing room last year, a mini tree skirt shot to the top of my list of projects to make!  I put it off for too long, but a few weekends ago I finally pulled out a layer cake of Ruby Star Society's Flurry fabric that I've been saving specifically for this project, and after just a few hours in the sewing room I had a super cute quilted tree skirt.  I had so much fun making it, I wanted to share a tutorial with you so you can whip up one (or two) for yourself! 

I made two versions of this tree skirt, one a bit scrappier than the other...and I was able to make them both from one layer cake! If you like the scrappier version, a jelly roll would also work well for this project since I used 2 inch strips pieced together.  Of course, you can also use fat quarters, or any scraps you have lying around in your stash.  You will also need a Dresden ruler (I used an 8 inch Dresden ruler, which made the perfect sized skirt for a mini Christmas tree). 

Simple Dresden Tree Skirt

For the tree skirt in the above pictures, I just used the 8 inch Dresden ruler to cut a variety of 8 inch Dresden blades from my 10 inch layer cake squares.  You will need a total of 20 Dresden blades to make the skirt.  Once you have your Dresden blades cut, you sew them together and it's ready to be quilted.  Just make sure you leave the two blades on the ends unsewn so the skirt has an opening that will allow you to wrap it around your tree (the raw edges will be covered by binding).  This is the quickest version to make! 

Scrappy Dresden Tree Skirt

The scrappy tree skirt takes a bit more piecing and a bit more time, but it's totally worth it in my opinion!  For the scrappy version, I cut my leftover layer cake scraps into strips 2 inches wide.  I then subcut the 2 inch strips to form a variety of different sized pieces.  The longest pieces you will need in order to fit the widest part of the Dresden ruler are 3 1/2 inches.  

You can cut all of your pieces 3 1/2 inches if you want, but you will have some fabric waste.  I chose to cut some pieces 3 1/2 inches, some 3 inches, some 2 1/2 inches, and some 2 inches...since I was using scraps, I wasn't super picky about how many of each size I cut...I just cut until I had no more fabric left over.  For the narrowest end of the Dresden ruler, your strip needs to be at least 2 inches long.  Any strips shorter than 2 inches won't allow enough excess for trimming your blades with the Dresden ruler. 

If you want to be more precise about your cutting and are trying to calculate how many strips you need to cut, you will need a total of 100 strips to make all 20 Dresden blades since each Dresden blade is made from 5 strips.  If you're cutting your strips different lengths, you can cut 20 strips from each size.  So, for example:

• 20 strips 2 inches X  3 1/2 inches
• 20 strips 2 inches X  3 inches
• 20 strips 2 inches  X  2 1/2 inches 
• 20 strips 2 inches  X  2 1/2 inches (I stacked two of the same size on top of each other)
• 20 strips 2 inches X  2 inches

Once I subcut all my strips, I arranged them on my cutting table in groups of 5 making sure the longest strips were at the bottom and the shortest strips at the top.  Since you are making 20 Dresden blades, you will need twenty groups of 5.  Then, you're ready to sew the 5 strips together to form each Dresden blade.

Tip for sewing the strip sets together:  If your 5 strips are different lengths, like mine, you can find the center of each strip just by folding them in half and creasing them...then line up the creases in the centers when sewing the strips together.  That way, when you trim the strip sets with the Dresden ruler, you won't run into any issues with not having enough excess fabric to trim.  You can see in the picture below that there is just enough excess fabric lying outside the Dresden ruler to allow for trimming. 

Once all your strip sets are sewn, you will use your Dresden ruler to trim each blade to the 8 inch size. Both the top and bottom of your Dresden ruler should align perfectly with the top and bottom of each pieced blade, so you only have to trim the sides of your blades. It helps to use a rotating cutting mat for this step so you can quickly trim each side without moving your ruler. 

After trimming your strip sets, you're ready to sew your 20 blades together to form your skirt!  I arranged them on a design board first just to make sure there was an even distribution of the colors before taking them to my machine to sew.  Again, when you sew the plates together just make sure you leave an opening at the ends so you can wrap the skirt around your tree. 

Quilting

Before quilting you'll make a quilt sandwich with your backing on the bottom, batting in the middle, and the pieced skirt on top.  You can quilt it however you wish.  I chose to quilt 1/4 inch away from each Dresden blade seam.  When you're done quilting your skirt, use a rotary cutter or a scissors to trim away the excess batting and backing. 

Binding

Now that your tree skirt is all quilted, you're ready to add the binding.  Since your tree skirt is round, you'll likely want to use a bias binding, which has a bit more stretch and will be easier to sew around the curved edges.  I am by no means an expert on bias binding...this was actually the first project I've ever made using a bias binding.  I watched several YouTube videos and there are different ways to make your bias binding.  I opted for what seemed like the quickest and least complicated way to me and used a half yard cut of fabric to cut 2  1/4 inch strips at a 45 degree angle.  I used my longest ruler (6 1/2 in.  X  24 in.) to cut the strips.  If you need a video tutorial, this is the one I used: Bias Binding Tutorial.  I've seen a lot of different ways to make bias binding, so use the way that is most comfortable for you.  

Once your binding is made, sewing it to the tree skirt isn't any different from sewing binding on a quilt, but I found you do have to stretch the binding a bit more to get it to lie flat around the curves, which is why a bias binding helps.  I struggled a bit with keeping my seam allowance consistent on the smaller inside curve, but it's not noticeable in the finished product.

I also made two ties with my leftover binding strips to secure the open ends of the skirt around my tree.  To make the ties, I cut 2 strips 7 in.  X  2  1/4 in. (you can make the ties more narrow if you want, for example you can cut them 1  1/2 inches for more narrow ties...I just used my leftover binding strips).  

To secure the ends of your ties, fold and press the raw edge under 1/4 inch on one side of each strip.  Next, fold each strip in half lengthwise (wrong sides together) to form a crease, then unfold the strips and refold each raw edge in towards the center crease. Press with your iron. Then fold the strips in half again and press with an iron.  Topstitch 1/8 in. down the long edge of each tie to secure it. The other raw edge of your ties will be secured when you sew them into your binding.  

You can position the ties wherever you want along the open ends of your skirt...I sewed my ties a little closer to the top than the bottom of the skirt.  Then just machine sew each tie to the back of your skirt so the raw edges will be secured within your binding. 

After machine sewing the binding to the top of my skirt, I opted to hand stitch it to the back using a chunky stitch.  Even though you won't ever see the back, I just love the charm those chunky binding stitches add to my skirt.  Lately, I've been wanting to use a chunky binding stitch for all of my projects! 

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial!  I'll warn you though, once you make one, it's kind of addicting...if you're like me, you may end up with more mini tree skirts than you have trees.

Happy sewing!