DIY Faux Fur Tree Skirt

Learn how to make a DIY faux fur tree skirt for an elegant and sophisticated look. The sewing is optional for a quick and easy Christmas project.

There’s something about faux fur that is so elegant and sophisticated while still being cozy and beautiful. Faux fur adds such a beautiful texture to a room. It can blend in with neutral decorations, but it can also go bold with bright decorations.

I chose a charcoal faux fur to go with the decor in this room and the decor of this particular tree, but there are some many colors and prints of faux fur you can choose from. You can choose rainbow, spotted, striped, or neon. If you choose white faux fur it can look like beautiful snow around the base of a Christmas tree.

What is faux fur?

Faux fur is a pile fabric which means one side is flat and smooth and the other side has “piles” or fabric fibers that are woven out and end with a cut. The piles can be short or long. Faux fur can be a stretch fabric with a soft hand, and faux fur can be a woven fabric with a stiff hand.

It is usually polyester based and can be made in any color. There is faux fur made to look like real fur in natural animal prints, and there is faux fur made from neon colors and unique prints.

What faux fur will work for a tree skirt?

Any faux fur will work for a tree skirt. You have to be careful when you are cutting out the faux fur, and it is very messy during the process. Once it is finished the mess can be cleaned up.

If you use a knit faux fur fabric, then zigzagging the edges will not be needed unless you want to prevent any faux fur piles from getting pulled out. If you use a woven faux fur fabric, then you will need to zigzag the edges to prevent the fabric from fraying and the faux fur piles from being pulled out.

What is nap and how does it affect faux fur?

The nap of fabric is when the pile of the fabric falls in the same direction. Nap should definitely be taken into consideration when cutting faux fur so that the nap will go the right way and that everything will be cut with the nap going the same way.

If you cut two pieces of fabric and the nap is going in different directions, then the color will actually look different. The fur will go in one direction on one piece and in a different direction on the other piece.

Do you love to sew? Try some of these sewing projects:

Supplies

1 yard of faux fur fabric (fabric.com has a huge selection of faux fur fabrics*) – makes a Christmas tree skirt that is 36 inches in diameter
Fabric scissors*
18 inch ruler*
Marking tool like tailor’s chalk*
Sewing machine

One yard of faux fur will be about 50 inches across and 36 inches tall.

Fold the faux fur in half with right sides together matching selvedge to selvedge. Fold the faux fur in half again matching cut edges. This creates folds so that one corner of the fabric is the center of the whole rectangle.

Use the center corner as a starting point to mark the fabric. Measure 18 inches out and around in a quarter circle shape. Measure 1 inch out and around in a quarter circle shape.

You now have two quarter circles marked on your fabric.

Keeping all four layers stable cut along both lines.

cut the 4 layers of fabric on the 2 lines

Open up the big circle/donut shape and pull off any fur that was cut loose. I do this by pulling at the fur along all the cut edges.

Find the nap of the faux fur (read about the nap of fabric towards the beginning of the post). Situate the fabric so that the nap is going down. The part of the circle where the nap is going down or towards the outside of the circle will be the front of the Christmas tree skirt.

Cut a straight line through the donut at the center back of the Christmas tree skirt.

cut a straight line along the back for an opening

Brush all the faux fur so that it’s going with the nap, and it’s all lying flat. Trim any faux fur that extends over the edge of the circle so that it looks like a circle shape.

trim the fur around the skirt so it doesn't extend too much

Optional: Sew a wide zigzag stitch around the edges of the whole tree skirt. This prevents any faux fur from being pulled off near the edges.

When I sewed my zigzag I used one hand to keep pushing the faux fur out of the way.

add a wide zigzag stitch around the edges

Brush the faux fur on the nap so that it’s all going the same direction. This also helps pull any fur out of the stitches that might have gotten stuck.

Slide the tree skirt around the base of your Christmas tree with the opening at the back and the nice nap at the front.

If you make something using this sewing project, I’d love to see! Please share it on social media with the hashtag #heatherhandmade and tag me!