Custom Christmas Tree Skirts

I did it yesterday!  Finally finished a Christmas tree skirt for Dennis and me!

This skirt has kind of been in the works for a couple years.  In 2022, I made my oldest son the first tree skirt I ever made.  I pretty much followed the design for the “North Pole Village” tree skirt by Designs by JuJu.  Since I couldn’t start making this skirt until mid-November, I was running out of time to get it shipped from Arizona to Missouri.  I substituted a few of the middle section designs with purely embroidery designs vs. appliqué designs which are very time intensive.

I was so fascinated with the process.  Watching a sewing machine do embroidery is hypnotic for me.  I could just sit and watch the needle move all around to complete an incredible design.

Once Christmas was over, I sent all my children a video of the making of this skirt.  I told them that if they wanted one for Christmas, I needed to know by February, and they could choose what they wanted as the middle designs. 

Son #3 decided he wanted one, and proceeded to select the designs and background colors for his tree skirt.  The skirt was completed with less stress since I had a long timetable to complete.

I was also getting better at this embroidery thing and the Christmas of 2023 included aprons.  Those were fun and very quick to make.  I found a great inexpensive apron with an online restaurant supply who delivered very quickly from New Jersey.

This year my embroidery time took a hit.  Valley Fever pretty much wiped out the first three months of the year.  I had two weddings we were invited to in August and October.  I decided I had plenty of time to design and stitch Christmas tree skirts as their wedding gift.  I designed these skirts specifically for each couple, with their names, kids’ names, pets’ names, and other things I knew about them.

Then June and July got tied up with Dennis being sick.  August and September became our shortened RV trip around the country.  Then late October through early December, his health had other issues, and I was caretaker, not embroidery designer.

Every time I made one of these skirts, Dennis would ask me when would I make one for us.  When we got back from our trip I told Dennis that I wanted him to select the designs for the middle.  I had the fabric for the inner section.  I loved this fabric that looks like a stormy winter sky.  It was the fabric I selected for the inner section for son #2’s skirt.  I was in Destin, Florida at the time, and found the fabric at a local store.  When I came home from that trip, I called the store in Destin, and order 5 more yards for future skirts (one which I knew would be for ours).

I started working on our skirt, and then Dennis went into the hospital.  Even before he went in, I knew he was having a health crisis and I didn’t do much sewing.  The late October hospitalization really threw me.  I was worried that this could be my last Christmas with my husband.  I was determined to finish this skirt for this Christmas—no matter what it takes.

Thankfully, after 2 hospitalizations for congestive heart failure late October and again in early December, Dennis is doing really good.  In fact, he seems healthier than he has been in a long time.  

I finally finished stitching out the last sections this week.  Then I had to sew all these pieces together.  For some reason, the backing gave me fits.  I think it was because I was in such a hurry to finish this skirt before Christmas.  As Jenny Doan from Missouri Star Quilt Company says, “Better finished than perfect.”  So happy it is completed. 

Son #3 is coming tomorrow to celebrate Christmas with us. We are blessed, and look forward to a time of relaxing, refreshment, and celebrating the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ!