To a T: Epic Burlap Ruffle Tutorial

I meant to get to this last week, but alas, we had a big birthday in our house that took precedence.

Here are some tips I learned along the way while making my ruffled burlap tree skirt, stockings and wreath (see here for original post).

Materials:

For All Three Projects

12 rolls of 4" burlap - can be found here (each roll comes with 10 yards)

Approximately 100 mini glue sticks

Glue gun

Kitchen rubber gloves

For Tree Skirt

2-3 yards duck cloth/muslin (depending on how big you want your base)

Twine to tie ends together

For Stockings

1-2 yards white felt (depends on how many you are making)

Bias tape

White lace

For Wreath

Wire hanger

DIY No-Sew Burlap Ruffle Christmas Tree Skirt:

I referenced this tutorial when making my skirt. The modifications I made were cutting my own base instead of covering up an old felt tree skirt (it would have been harder to get hot glue to stick to felt) and not pinning each individual ruffle (that would have taken forever).

Instead of covering up an old tree skirt, I made my own from duck cloth (found next to the burlap at the fabric store). I used this tutorial for measuring out my perfect circle.

After measuring and cutting out my base, I started making my way around the circle with my burlap. I hot glued and pressed down 3-4 ruffles at a time, then moved onto the next section.

Tip #1: Duck cloth frays. I thought the raw edges would be covered up by the burlap, but the perfectionist in me decided after the fact that the edges should be hemmed under to prevent loose strings from poking out. I would recommend doing this step before glueing on any burlap.

Tip #2: Burlap frays. I can't imagine cutting out each strip of burlap just to have it fray all over the place. Instead, I found pre-cut, rolled burlap here. The best part? All of the edges were finished, which meant no fraying disaster.

Tip #3: Measure. Before glueing away, I'd recommend measuring out the approximate distance you want between layers so you don't have an awkward gap at the top (Let's pretend that I remember how far apart I spaced mine).

Tip #4: Hot glue burns fingers. I wore rubber kitchen gloves the entire time and was able to press down right on the glue as I worked through each section. This saved so much time and burnt fingers. I just had to peel the glue mess off the gloves every so often.

So, I basically just kept going around and around, glue gun in hand. It was great because each layer got shorter than the last.

At the beginning and end of each row, I tucked my ends under and hot glued them right onto the cloth.

Voila. There is some twine looped through the base to tie the whole tree skirt together at the back of the tree (as shown in this tutorial).

DIY Burlap Ruffle Stockings:

I completely made this idea up based on the tree skirt. First, I traced an old stocking onto my white felt and cut out a double layer of each pattern.

I sewed up the edges and turned them inside out. Then, I started wrapping burlap around the front and back in the same fashion as the tree skirt; glueing down 2-3 ruffles at a time. I cut off each row on the back and glued it down where it wasn't as visible.

Once I finished wrapping, I cut off the excess burlap at the opening of the stocking and glued a strip of bias tape around the edge to prevent fraying and keep everything in place.

Then, I glued down two rows of lace (I love burlap and lace together) and folded the top row over the edge. Using more hot glue, of course.

That's it. To make the stocking hangers, I folded my 4" burlap strip into thirds, pressed and sewed the edges, and handed them over to my mom who hand-sewed them in (aren't moms just so much better at those tasks?).

DIY No-Sew Burlap Ruffle Wreath:

This was the easiest project of the three. It took maybe 20 minutes. I started by finding the center of my burlap strip, and ripping out my "marker" thread.

Then, using that line as my guide, I looped the burlap back and forth onto a wire hanger.

I used one whole roll of burlap, or 10 yards. When I finished looping, I wrapped the wire hanger around my circular trash can. It was very scientific. And you can see how much I treasure my son's weekly nursery art.

I twisted the ends together and cut off the excess wire.

I added dabs of hot glue (with my rubber gloves on, of course) between each layer to even it out. To prevent the whole mass from sinking to the bottom once it was hung up, I tied little strips of duck cloth underneath the burlap every few inches. That seemed to hold it all in place.