Some time ago, my daughter and son-in-law brought over some old skirts, likely wool, that had belonged to his aunt and thought I could create something from them.
I thought a tree skirt would be fun because of the colors of the skirts. These were pleated, kilt-style skirts. I had a few back in the 80s! So I removed the waistbands and pressed out the pleats. I didn’t notice the holes at first, but we worked around them.
Years ago, in addition to Joann Fabrics, we had a Minnesota Fabrics. They would host a Christmas gift idea fashion show each year and distribute a booklet with all of the ideas and patterns. I have held onto these for 30 years and often look through them when I need ideas.
In this book, I found a pattern for this three-tiered skirt. Because I was trying to get as many holiday orders done as possible, I assigned the cutting of the pattern pieces to my husband. He did a great job. Some of the pieces were probably on the bias, so they were quite stretchy when I sewed them together. Interfacing would have been helpful. But I figured that since it wasn’t a complete circle, we had wiggle room. So I veered from the instructions, and finished the quilt in the Maiden Jane way. First, I noticed that our 12 pie pieces did not make a complete circle. We simply added another. I found a piece of blue sweatshirt fleece, sewed the skirt to it, right sides together, turned it inside out, pressed it, and tacked it at the block intersections.
This was a fun, collaborative project and I love the end result. I think I will offer this as a custom product.
