DIY tree skirt

This is our 4th Christmas as married peeps, and for the last three years we have not had a Christmas tree skirt.. If I found one I "liked" it was more than I wanted to pay and and I didn't love anything I was willing to pay for. So we just didn't have one. One day, on the way home from work, I was feeling crafty and decided I wanted to make a tree skirt. My original intentions when pulling into the craft store were to make a bigger version of the burlap ruffled wreaths I had seen floating around Pinterest. I had not done any research, math, or preparations for this skirt I just spontaneously decided I wanted to stop about 1/2 mile before I arrived to the store. I actually thought, "you know, I've not seen any of these around and I might actually have an original idea!" hahah.. yeah right! There are no original ideas these days! I went in to JoAnn's and bought 4 yards of red and green burlap, and then went home to attempt to make my skirt! Upon arriving home I decided to do a little search on Pinterest for ruffled Christmas tree skirts. Come to find out there was no shortage of people doing this! It was during this search that I stumbled upon the inspiration for a few days of insanity! Once stumbling upon this skirt I quickly made another trip to the fabric store and picked up some more fabric.  Here is the link to the blog where there are detailed instructions on how to make your own ruffled tree skirt!

This is the original bloggers skirt! I think I like that all of her layers are different

Let me first say that this was my very first sewing experience and the first time using my sewing machine... I did not even have the manual to the machine and was seriously lost from step 1! But I persevered because my inspiration blogger said "It's fairly simple just time consuming." So surely I could do it if she said it was simple right!?! Ha! My first mistake was not using felt for the baking as the blogger had instructed me to do. Like usual I don't follow instructions very well and assume when I shouldn't. I assumed it would be fine if I used an old bed sheet for the backing since it was just backing and non-important. The felt would have been a lot more sturdy and easier to work with. I also did a 60" skirt rather than her 44". This was not a mistake just meant that I, I mean we ( as in my awesomely amazing husband and myself) had some math to do. I did 3 different fabrics and had seven layers (she did 5 fabrics, 5 layers).  So it was a little tricky. Once starting this project, and learning how to use the machine, I was very anxious to see this project finished! So, I stayed up for 24 hours straight trying to get this sucker finished! When I start a project I don't like them to linger unfinished for long, so I struggled through a very messy house with fabric scraps, burlap trash, needles, stick pins and thread for three days and finished very tired strong! Here are some of my pictures along the way. I didn't take many because I was pretty much flustered for the first 24 hours of this 26ish hour project... :) 

my bed sheet that undoubtedly should have been felt!

about half of my yet-to-be-ruffled polka dots

this is where I just set them up there to see if I was even going to like the finished product

tada! I do like it very much but will probably be making another in a few years as I don't see it holding up thanks to my awesome skills, or lack there of.. :)

Our tree all perti-ed up! :) 

Anyone else have some *fun* brushes with insanity involved with your first sewing project?