Turn a Vintage Bath Towel into a Nostalgic Tree Skirt
I’m sure I’m not the only one who thinks this, but my grandma had great taste. She was a little girl in the depression and a classy midcentury mother, and because of this, she chose pieces as much for quality as for style. I covet the things I inherited from her– especially the purses, jewelry, photographs, and small decor items.
And then, there are items I ended up with that I bet she’d be surprised lasted the test of time, or that I love them as much as I do. She’d be surprised that I’d want them because they’re not typical “heirloom” items. They’re ‘every day’ items, and I think that’s what makes them so special.
I’ve always been in love with vintage towels, but I’m especially in love with my grandma’s towels. The vintage floral patterns on them make my heart so inherently happy. Thinking of her using them to bathe my mom as a baby just fills my heart.
In general, vintage towels are much smaller than the ones sold today. They’re also not as soft, probably from decades of use. For these reasons, we don’t actually use the towels to dry ourselves off and I’m always looking for creative, functional ways to repurpose them. When we set up Fiona’s little Christmas tree in her room this year and I realized she didn’t have a proper tree skirt, I thought repurposing one of my grandma’s vintage towels would be a perfect solution.
The whole project took less than an hour and I love how it turned out!
Supplies:
- Vintage Bath Towel
- Trim (I die for pom pom trim)
- Sewing Machine, Needle & Thread, or Fabric Glue
- Fabric Scissors
Step 1: Fold the towel in half creating as much of a square as possible. Determine one corner on the fold that will be the hole that goes around the tree “trunk.”
Step 2: Using a small bowl or cup, trace a three inch semi-circle in the corner. Cut along the line with fabric scissors. Cut both layers.
Step 3: Using a pencil and string as a compass, trace and cut out a large semi-circle. You can see in the picture below that I cut the top layer first to make sure it was the shape I wanted before cutting the bottom layer to match.
Note: I wanted to preserve as much of the towel fabric as possible so I did not create a perfect circle. I knew the back edges of the tree skirt would simply overlap each other in the back of the tree and not align perfectly.
Below is what the tree skirt looks like when it is completely cut and folded once.
Step 4: Now comes the fun part! Add any trim you like along the edge and hem the back parts. I used my sewing machine to make quick work of this, but if you’re not a sewer, fabric glue would work as well. My favorite brands of quality fabric glue are Aleene’s and Api’s.
Fiona loves her little tree skirt and I think it really enhances her room for the holidays. I think my grandma would approve as well. 🙂
