For many years, I decorated for the holidays with the same traditional red and green Christmas color scheme.  There’s nothing wrong with that, of course – traditions become traditions for good reason!  But after more than a decade of the same style, I decided it would be fun to change up our Christmas look.  Last year, I edited and updated our decorations for a red, turquoise, and silver Christmas.  And this year, I’m in love with a simple gray and white Christmas color scheme.  It makes me feel like I’m getting back to the tranquil snowy outdoors – even if I am in California!

Like last year, when I reinvented many of our decorations with silver paint and ribbons, I wanted to work with a lot of things I had, while adding a few new items.  I’ve also been trying to keep my fabric and craft stash in check, so I pulled out all the gray and white fabrics I could find around the house and started to sew!

First up was a new Christmas tree skirt.  I sewed our original tree skirt 18 years ago, when I was more fond of a cute and country look, and I took this year’s skirt in a complete different direction, making something very sleek and calming.  I started with a grey faux suede upholstery fabric sitting in a corner.  I had bought it to upholster our dining room chairs, and then I decided to make them more whimsical with a printed fabric.

Materials:

• Grey faux suede fabric, 60″x60″
• White cotton fabric to make a wide bias binding (I forgot to measure, but I estimate I used a little over a yard of 42″ wide cotton)
• Narrower white bias binding

Instructions:

• Cut a 60″ diameter circle from the main fabric
• Cut a 6″ diameter hole from the center
• Cut a straight line from the perimeter to the center

The basic shape for the Christmas tree skirt.

• Make 5″ wide bias binding from the trim fabric
• Iron the binding in half to a make 2.5″ wide strip

• Sew the binding to the two straight edges that makes the opening of the skirt, sewing on the back side of the main fabric with the raw edges lined up
• Wrap the binding around to the front.  Pin and sew to the front of the skirt
• Add the binding to the outer edge of the skirt the same way, stretching the edges of the bias binding as you go.
• Use the narrower binding to finish the inside circle

Sew the doubled bias binding to the underside of the skirt. Then, wrap the binding around to the front and sew in place.

That’s all! Here’s our new Christmas skirt!

Modern gray and white Christmas tree skirt.

I’ve got a few more white Christmas ideas coming up, and you can start your holiday shopping over at Zulily:

“Jewels”