Romantic Christmas

pearls and lace

Aug 23, 2007

This week we will be looking at decorating for the romantic in all of us.

Today is all about romance. The directions will include a tree skirt and ornament. The materials are listed for the tree skirt but not the ornament. The ornament is made from scraps of the tree skirt. For this reason, if you want to make a lot of ornaments, add fabric to the tree skirt fabric purchase.

Tree Skirt

Materials Needed:

Off white lace fabric-1 1/2 yards
Off white lace trim -4 ½ yards
Pearl string -4 ½ yards
Pink velvet ribbon –4 ½ yard
Batting -45" circle
Pink satin -3 yards
Sewing machine
Pink thread
Scissors
Sewing needle or hot glue
Pins
Potpourri or dried roses

When choosing your lace and lace fabric, don't skimp. There is such a difference in the look from cheap lace to quality lace. You will lose too much. This is not the place to save money. If you would like to lessen the cost of this project, you would be better off switching the satin for flannel or cotton.

Cut out a 45-inch circle from the lace fabric, one from the batting and two from the pink fabric. On all four pieces cut one line from the outer edge to the center of the circle. In the very center, cut a circle measuring approximately 10 inches in diameter.

Layer the fabric, lace fabric and batting as follows making sure each layer is smoothed flat and all the layers are pinned in place.

From bottom to top-

Batting
Pink fabric –face up
Lace fabric –face up
Pink fabric –face down

Beginning in the back with the slit, sew the stack of fabric all the way around, including up and around the center hole, leaving about an eight-inch opening. Turn fabric so that you have a pink bottom, batting middle, pink top with a lacy overlay. Hand stitch the opening closed. Pin the outer edge at about ½ inch. Sew all the way around, including up and around the center hole, about ½ inch in from the edge. Beginning in the back, sew or hot glue lace trim along bottom edge where you just stitched. Sew or hot glue pink ribbon at the lace trim’s upper edge all the way around. Now sew or hot glue the pearl string to edge the ribbon and lace all the way around.

Ornament

Use the scrap fabric and lace to make matching ornaments. Cut the pink fabric and lace fabric into 8 inch pieces shaped like one third of a pizza pie. Hot glue them into a cone shape. Trim with the lace trim and use the ribbon for a hanger. Apply pearls on either hanger or edging. Fill with potpourri or dried roses and scatter them all over your tree. It will not only look good, it will smell great.