Belated Happy Thanksgiving! In our house, we aren't allowed to decorate for Christmas until Thanksgiving Day. So naturally, I already have the tree up and have been wanting to figure out a solution for the tree skirt. For the past few years, I had a faux fur blanket that I just wrapped around the base of the tree. It was a nice temporary solution, but a) it wasn't totally visible under the tree from afar, and b) it made it impossible for me to use my blanket! This year, I decided I would start to check out the options for faux fur tree skirts. Everywhere I looked, they were above $40. The cheapest one I found was at Grandin Road for $19, but the reviews all said that the material seemed cheap and thin. I decided it would be best to DIY it. Then, I got an email from Hancock's saying they were having a sale on faux fur--done deal! This project cost me $17 for the fabric, and I had everything else on hand.
Tools you will need to make your own DIY Faux Tree Skirt: 2 yards of faux fur (this works well for a 6-8 foot tree) Xacto knife (it's worth it to use a fresh blade) Sharpie tape string (I used embroidery thread) First, spread the fabric out, fur side down. The shorter side of the fabric will determine how big your circle can be. Tie the string around your sharpie and use it to eyeball where the middle of the fabric is by holding it down in the middle and pulling it taught. The exact center doesn't matter too much because your string will serve as a guide and keep everything even.
Once you have determined where the middle is, tape your string down in that spot. Then, pull the string taught and make sure that your circle stays on the fabric BEFORE drawing it. Then, draw your circle, making sure that the string is taught the entire time. This will ensure your circle is even. Then, draw a small circle in the center for the tree pole. I did mine about 2" across since my pole is pretty small. Last, draw a line on half of the skirt so that you can put the skirt on after the tree is assembled. After you've traced out all your edges, it's time to cut the fur out. DO NOT USE SCISSORS. It is very important that you use an xacto knife because scissors will cut the ends of your fur and the cut won't be hidden. Simply use your xacto knife to cut along your drawn circle until it is cut out. Only insert the knife deep enough to cut through the backing and don't press the knife into the surface below, like this:
Once the outside of the skirt is cut out, you can cut out the smaller circle for the post, and then cut out the line along one side. It's done! Optionally, you can use caulk to draw a few lines along the backside to make it nonskid. That is something that I considered doing in the future, but for now I'm fine with it how it is.
Below you will see a $70 (on sale!) Restoration Hardware Faux Fur tree skirt on the left, and my $17 DIY version on the right.
