Plaid Lamp Shade Tree Skirt DIY

We weren’t going to let another year go by without a proper tree skirt.

We usually just wrap some plaid fabric around the base of the tree and it looks great, very Linus in Charlie Brown Christmas. We weren’t going to settle on one we didn’t love, tree skirts are expensive and a life time commitment!

Don’t worry, if you only have fabric or a cute blanket, that will totally work!! Don’t stress! If you have a little time though, this DIY is one of our all time favorites! ! 

Materials

• Lamp Shade

• Different Colored Yarn

• Plastic Needle

• Industrial Wire Cutters

• Colored Paper

Get Wrapping and Weaving

1. Prep the shade – With an industrial strength wire cutter, cut out harp of the lamp shade. 

2. Map out your plaid – Making a plaid pattern can be tricky, cut strips of colored paper and play around with layering. This will be a great reference and help understand how to weave the yarn as you go. 

3. Prep your yarn – Wrap the yarn you’re working with into smaller balls, this will make it much easier to wrap and weave your plaid efficiently.

4. Wrap the vertical Stripes – Start with wrapping blocks of red vertical stripes. Tie the end of the piece of yarn to itself inside the lampshade and start wrapping. Push the yarn together as you go, but don’t let them over lap each other. Once done with each stripe cut the yarn and tie it to itself inside the lampshade and repeat with the next color. 

5. Weave the horizontal stripes – Prep your yarn by pre wrapping it around the lampshade and cutting off the amount you need. This will make it much easier to weave.  Weave around the lampshade going under one block of vertical stripes and over the next. Tie off the ends of the horizontal stripes under the vertical stripes so they’re hidden. Tip: Double up the yarn by, threading a large needle to the middle of the piece of yarn. This way you can weave twice as fast.

6. Add Thinner stripes – Really make the plaid come together by adding thinner stripes. Because of the way the lampshade is shaped, the yarn will not fully cover it, adding a few stripes of white really helped tie it all together together.

Want to make one just like ours?

Follow this key!

• Bright red- Wrapped 20x for each vertical stripe 

• Dark red- Wrapped 12x for each vertical stripe

• Green- Woven 5x around for each horizontal stripe

• White- Woven 1x for each horizontal stripe

• Green- Wrapped twice around for each thin horizontal stripe

• Green- Wrapped 2x for each vertical stripe

Check out our HGTV Handmade video to see Andrew wear the lampshade on his head and talk like a robot, Dennis being sassy and talking about his past roles as Santa and a full video tutorial!