No-Sew Ruffle Tree Skirt

I am in love with this tree skirt!  I've been seeing them around Pinterest and finally sat down to make one.  From what I've read on other blogs, if you just sit down and work until it's finished, it takes somewhere around 4-5 hours.  I did not time myself because I knew I'd be working on it while our daughter was awake.  I started on it Friday evening around 5:00 and it was finished at lunchtime on Saturday.  {Karlie and I took lots of book reading/ball throwing/chocolate milk making/booty dancing breaks...all of which I highly recommend during this project}

WARNING:  While this was an incredibly easy project, it was tedious.  EX.TREME.LY. tedious.  Some may experience thoughts like:
"This is taking FORever."
"I'm running out of material..."
"I don't think I have enough glue sticks."
"My back is KILLING me!"
"No, literally.  I think I'm dying from back pain..."
"If those dogs shed one more hair on my ruffles..."
"Ugh....."
"Do you think two rows of ruffles is enough?"
All of these thoughts are normal.  Don't give up!  Some All of those thoughts may have come out of my mouth at some point.  Just take lots of breaks and try to have fun!  It will be beautiful!

Here's what I used:
~ 1 canvas dropcloth from Lowe's or Home Depot (you could also use a tree skirt you already have)
~ 3 yards white material (I'm pretty sure it was muslin)
~ 3 yards tan material (I'm not sure what it is exactly but it was sitting on the same shelf as the burlap at Joann's)
~ rotary cutter (MUCH easier/faster than using scissors)
~ glue gun and lots of glue sticks
~ something very entertaining

1.  Fold your drop cloth in half, and then in half again so it is quartered.
2.  Fold your square in half to form a triangle.
3.  My husband likes to be exact so we used a tape measure and Sharpie as a compass to draw the arc where we would cut.
4.  Cut that line and another smaller arc down at the point.

You should end up with a circle...**

**I was really hoping to be able to tell you which side of the triangle to cut but somehow we failed miserably and ended up with this....

So I had to whip out my sewing machine to sew the two half-circles together. (I could have also used hot glue)  

Begin cutting your strips of material.  The length doesn't really matter but the longer the better (then you won't have to keep reaching for strips) but they need to be 3 inches wide.

Now set up for the long haul.  This is what my work area looked like:

Using a little bit of glue at a time (it dries pretty quickly) use your strips to make ruffles.  My advice would be to make little ruffles.  I started out making the ruffles very tall but it uses more material and takes a little bit longer.

So if you make the ruffles shorter, it goes a little quicker and doesn't use as much material.  Anna phrased it: "Less ruffle, less fabric being used."  Something like that.  She's very wise.

Keep going and going and going, alternating fabric between rows.  Saturday morning I moved to the kitchen table because hunching over on the floor was taking a toll on my back.

A couple hours later, this is what I had....

I L-O-V-E it!  So much.  Or as Karlie says "doe mush."

Another Pinterest-ing Project

Would you like to guess where I got the idea for this next project?  If you guessed Pinterest, you guessed right!  This pin to be exact.

We did this project awhile ago and I just have not gotten around to sharing it.  So when I heard that Katie over at Bower Power and Sherry over at Young House Love were doing another round of their Pinterest Challenge, I knew I wanted to participate this time.

All you need for this project is:
~ a canvas (Fortunately we had recently grown to dislike the enormous 4'x4' canvas that was hanging in our living room so we decided to give it a little facelift.)
~ letters (We used two different kinds: the smaller letters are chipboard letters.  We found ours in the scrapbook section at Joann's.  The larger letters were from Hobby Lobby, 50% off!)
~ white spray paint
~ acrylic paint, any color.  The bolder the better. (This was how we put our own little spin on the project.)


If you're using a canvas you already have, make sure you wipe it clean of dust.

Pick your phrase!  For ours, we chose a phrase from our wedding verse, Song of Solomon 8:7.  

 Then using your letters, decide where you want it and then spell it out.  The chipboard letters have sticky squares on the back of them so they were easy to stick down.  For the larger letters we used a hot glue gun.

(I've included a picture of the chipboard letters. I had the hardest 

time finding them because I didn't know what they looked like!)

Then start spraying your white spray paint.  

Because our canvas was so large it took several coats (it could actually probably use another coat.)  

Just keep spraying until you're satisfied that it's evenly coated.

Now here's where that acrylic paint comes into play.

Using the paint and a brush, paint the side edges of the canvas.  

This part was the most tedious and took the longest, and we had 3 people working on it.

Boy, oh boy, do I love that pop of color!

Now I have to admit, when we got home and hung it back up, I didn't love it.  It was hard to go from seeing something dark on the wall to seeing something so stark white.  But it has grown on me.  We're slowly repainting our house (changing the color scheme) so I think the new color will look great behind it!

P.S. - If you want to see a couple other things I have done (inspired by Pinterest) peek over at the right side of the page and click on "Pinterest" under the words screaming "LOOKING FOR SOMETHING???"  

I highly recommend the homemade Febreze!