A Christmas Skirt At Last

I have been talking about making a new Christmas skirt for our tree for at least a couple years.  I had some 4 1/2 inch strips cut from this Figgy Pudding fabric and decided it probably would work well.  

I got the the skirt all finished, even figured out how to face the center hole so I did not have to split it and make ties.  It will fit right over the tree stand before setting the tree in.  I had it all machine bound, with the light print.  

Problem #1:  Now that it was all done except for sewing by hand the binding down.   I decided to try it out on the tree stand.  Might have been smart to see how big it needed to be first.  It was a good 2 inches too small all away around to cover the stand's legs.  

OK:  I cut a 6 1/2 inch bias strip folded it in half and started to sew it all around from the back side.

Problem #2:  It was cupping under so badly that this idea would not work.  So I un-sewed the strip and put in on again sewing it from the top side.

Problem #3:  Now it cupped up instead.  I was smarter this time and only sewed about 10 inches around, in order to test my idea.  Not so much un-sewing this time.  

Hmmmm:  What to do, maybe add pleats every 2 inches or so to give more fabric around, maybe it will lay flat.  WORKS!

I guess this goes to say the Mother of Invention at least when quilting is a couple of major mess ups!