Felt Poinsettia Tree Skirt

Here's a special craft to make your Christmas tree spectacular. Using a combination of premium 35% ivory wool felt, and olive eco-fi Classicfelt, this tree skirt is affordable and easy to make. 

Materials you will need:

• Felt-- total depends on the diameter you want your tree skirt to be. Mine is appx. 40," and I used about 7 yards of ivory, and 2 yards of olive. This fabric can be found on bolts, or in 8.5" x 11" sheets-- the sheets are available in a wider variety of colors, so may be a good choice for any accent flowers.
• 4mm pearl beads
• Needle and thread to match your felt
• Hot glue gun and glue sticks
• Optional:

              Patience. Band Aids. Bacitracin.

Step 1:

1. Begin with length of felt that is 8.5" tall. 
2. Fold in half, pressing the fold line to make a faint crease. 
3. You may prepare a template for the following step if desired, but I just winged it :) Cut 4.25" tall elongated football shapes, as shown. When you're finished, you will be left with 8 leaf shapes.

Step 2:

1. Taking a single petal, fold in half lengthwise.
2. Using a very small dot of hot glue, glue the center of the petal together, being careful not to glue the edges.
3. When the glue is dry, you can partially open up the petal as shown.

I suggest stopping at this point, and making as many petals this far as you can. Not all your petals will need Step 3.

Step 3:

1. Still holding the portion you glued, fold the outer edges back towards your thumb.
2. Turn the petal over, and in the crease you just made, dab a small dot of glue and press. Repeat for the other half of the petal.

You're now one third of the way through your first poinsettia blossom!

Step 4:

1. Take another petal, which is only glued once in the center, hold back the outer edges as if you were about to complete another like step 3.
2. Take the petal from step 3, and place a generous amount of glue on the center back.
3. Press the petal from step 3 firmly to the center of the second, creating an elongated X shape with the two.

Step 5:

1. Take another petal which has only been glued in the center, and hold back the outer edges, once again as if to glue in place as in step 3.
2. Place 3 dots of glue on the petal-- one on each crease as in step 3, and another, much more generous amount in the center.
3. Grasping your X of petals from the back, firmly press your third petal to the top of the X, pinching the top center as you press. This will create six evenly spaced petals.

Step 6:

You are left with a 6 pointed blossom, which appears, front and back, as shown.

If desired, you can now hand stitch 2 small pearls, at an angle, in the center of the flower.

Repeat these steps until you have enough flowers to encircle the outer edge of your tree skirt twice. For my tree skirt, this took approximately 100 flowers.

**I promise, once you've made it through the first flower, you'll totally get it and fly through the rest of em'. :D

Step 7:

1. Cut a circle out of your felt in your desired diameter, and large enough to accommodate 2 rows of flowers.
2. Cut from the outer edge to the very center, and cut a small circle out of the center to wrap around the trunk of your tree.
3. Begin hot gluing your flowers on the outermost edge of the fabric, using nickel sized dollops of hot glue, and alternating your colors as desired. I used two ivory flowers, and the third olive. Once you've gone all the way around, nudge your pattern over by one flower, so your accent color isn't right on top of another, and complete the inner circle of flowers.

At this point, you could be done. You could also finish the edges of your center circle and slit with a decorative stitch, and add large pearl buttons and satin rope to hold your skirt closed. Personalize it and make it your own! Happy Holidays!