Housewife Eclectic

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Doctor Who Alien Tree Skirt

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Hi again! Lorene here, back to share one more Doctor Who Christmas Tree project.

Last Christmas, I made my favorite Whovian (that’s Debra) a whole Doctor Who tree, complete with a Weeping Angel tree topper, character tree skirt, police box lighted sign, Doctors and companions garland, and oodles of Doctor-inspired ornaments. Today you get to learn how I made the tree skirt, which loosely translates into a semi-tutorial.

Doctor Who Christmas Tree Skirt

Supplies
These are amounts to make a small (approximately 34 inches in diameter) tree skirt that fit a small 3 foot tree. Adjust for a larger or smaller tree skirt. Also, please note that I did not hem or otherwise finish the raw edges of the fabric (other than a zig zag stitch) so if that will bother you, you may want to use knit fabric or fray check or find another solution.
1. Cut a large circle from the dark blue fabric. With the circle still folded (presuming you double folded the fabric and cut a quarter circle), cut a very small hole in the center, large enough for the trunk of the tree. Cut a thin slit directly out from that center circle toward the edge of the circle, long enough to allow you to fit the tree skirt over the base of the tree stand.
2. Cut another circle the same size from the white fabric. With the white fabric circle still folded, cut a border about 3 inches wide, so you have a full ring that to be the border at the edge of the tree skirt. If your white fabric isn’t wide enough, you can piece the border together as needed.
3. Edit and finagle with your character outlines to get them the right size for what you want. I did this using Photoshop, but you could use Picasa, Picmonkey, or do it by hand. Once you have your designs as you like, REVERSE the design, and trace it on to the fusible web, on the smooth papery side.
4. Fuse the first side of the fusible web (following the manufacturer’s directions)  onto the white fabric. Cut out the designs, cutting through the fusible web and the fabric.
5. Lay the white ring on top of the blue circle. Attach the circles along the outer edge by sewing a tight zig-zag stitch all the way around. I used small pieces of fusible hem tape spaced around the edge to help hold it in place as I stitched.

 

6. Peel the paper backing from the character designs, and arrange them as you like on the tree skirt, with each bottom edge touching or just barely underneath the white ring. Iron the designs to set the fusible web according to the manufacturer’s instructions.
7. Pin or use more fusible hem tape to hold the top edge of the white ring in place while you sew another tight zig zag stitch around the inner edge of the ring, tacking down the edge of the ring and also sewing in the bottoms of the character pieces.
Bonus step: If you’re feeling extra ambitious, sew on ricrac, sequins, or other embellishments to look like snow. If you’re doing this the night before you are going to deliver it (procrastination for the win!), just be happy that it turned out at all and call it a night. 🙂
Total cost: I used everything I had on hand, so $0! Buying all the supplies would probably cost around $10, depending on what kind of fabrics you bought and whether you used coupons and/or sales (which you definitely should — never pay full price for anything if you can avoid it!)

 

Thanks again for having me, and I hope you all will sew and LOVE your Doctor Who tree skirt.
Happy holidays (no matter what time of year),
Lorene
Lu (or Lorene if you prefer) is the mom of 3 kids and wife of a singing and dancing elementary teacher. She happily shows up here at Housewife Eclectic whenever Debra allows, and occasionally blogs on whatever topic comes up over at her blog, just Lu, when she has time in between projects and her awesome job as a virtual assistant. 

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