Hi, I am Beth Bates with SewTeacher. Today I am showing you how to make a custom Christmas Tree skirt. We have already sewn together the lining and the face fabric, up one side, around the inner circle and half way down the other side. We are just about ready to turn it inside out, before we turn it inside out, because this is sewn on a curve; we need to take our scissors and in about every two inches, cut a little slit, being very careful, not to cross the thread where we have just sewn.
So this way when we open it up it will lay flat, otherwise it would be puckered, very carefully, I am going to go all the way around the inner -- the outer edges and when we finish going around the outer edges, then we need to do the inside of the circle as well. Okay, now I finished with the outer circle, it is time to go ahead and cut the slits in the inner circle. I like to cut these corners off, of course taking great care not to snip the thread that we have sewn and that way when we turn it inside out, be nice and pointy.
Now because this is a smaller circle, I am going to make the slit like every half inch and be really careful because you do not want to cut across the thread, across your seam line. Make this all the way around and this is so when we turn it inside out, it will be all puckered, it will be able to lay flat. It is that every half inch all the way around the inner circle. Okay, again, I am at the end, so I am going to snip off that corner.
So when we turn it inside out, we will have a nice point there and notice, I am close but I do not cross over the thread line, that is very important Okay, now I am going to find that opening that I left and stick my hand all the way through around the circle on a -- actually snip off any thread. Okay, from reaching around all the way through, grabbing the opposite corner, poking it through and very gently because you do not want to rip. I am going to pull it all the way through and this is the fun part because then you can almost at the end and you can see how it is going to look.
Okay, shake it, gently pulling it out, going all the way around, pulling it all the way out, very good. Okay, make sure, you got to make sure, get this other inside corner, look through, once you sew it up, you can not go back and adjust this, so this is your chance, I have got all laid out. Now, I am going to go ahead and begin ironing, you want to make sure your face fabric lays on top of the line; you do not want your lining to show.
So, I actually like to fold it like this, this is called nice edging. See, I have just a tiny little bit of the green or the face fabric showing. Alright, take your iron; please be careful not to burn your fingers. Now, if you are using a silk or Tafetta, you may want to use a pressing cloth on top. So it is not just scorch your fabric. Okay, by pressing cloth, I need a piece of scrap fabric to lay on top like a piece of lining, makes a nice pressing cloth.
Okay, for this particular fabric, I do not have to worry about it. It is just a regular cotton. Alright, we are going to use the same thing all the way around the inner circle making sure that a little bit of the green is sewing as you are doing that. We nice edge, so that when we turn it over none of the lining will peak out, it will be all nice and neat and tucked under like that. So we want to do that on the both sides and the inner circle.
Okay, and then we will go ahead and turn it over and just give the outside a quick iron down by the trim. So it lays nice and flat, this maybe a step you can skip, but I think, it makes for a nicer New Year tree skirts, we do that. Now, we are back to the opening that we left, so that we could turn it inside out. We are going to very gently iron the seam, you will be top stitching this on the outside, take your lining half-an-inch and then take your face fabric and it should be just a little bit over the lining, tucking all that in.
Okay and then we will pin it. Okay and when you pin it, make sure you are grabbing both the lining and your face fabric. There, now that we have finished pinning together the opening in our Christmas tree skirt, we will take it back to the sewing machine and top stitch it close.