Make this fabulous Felt Garland for any occassion
Hullo hullo fellow Mums Take Five readers. I’m Sarah from Hunting for Ladybugs. I have been lucky enough to hijack this blog for the day so please be gentle. Thanks for having me girls.
When Bel asked me to share a tutorial for something quick and easy for Christmas, I immediately thought of this simple but effective felt garland. It is super cute in all its festive goodness, quick to whip up and very light and easy to hang. If you can sew a (mostly) straight line, you can sew this.
You will need:
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Small sheets of felt in your selected colours – I used olive, red and ivory
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Sewing machine
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Thread – I used a neutral cream colour
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Scissors or rotary cutter, mat & ruler
Cut your felt into 1” squares (2.5cm x 2.5cm). I had some felt scraps leftover from making a pile of these garlands a few years ago. My scraps were already 2” wide so I just split them in half and then trimmed to 1” squares.
** Three layers of felt is about the maximum I could accurately cut through with my rotary cutter.
I made 54 squares of each colour to give about 5.5m of finished garland. Add or subtract square to adjust the length as needed.
The technique to sew all these squares together is called chain piecing. Chain piecing is when you sew your pieces together with one continuous length of thread without stopping in between pieces.
Feed the squares under your needle one at a time with the incoming square just kissing the one in front (you don’t want them to overlap or have big gaps between them). I go across the diagonal but you could go straight across also. There’s no need to backstitch between each one but you may need to lift your presser foot every now and again to get the correct positioning.
Then just channel Finding Nemo’s Dory and just keep swimming… sewing!
With the last square going through – you’re all done!
Being so light, it’s very easily hung over a mirror, your tree or for the few festive weeks with some short term adhesive like Blu-tak.
Sarah is the hands behind handmade business Hunting for Ladybugs. She’s based on a farm in country WA. She makes a large assortment of goodies which all have a practical slant. She also welcomes custom orders so if you’re looking for a special something, get in touch with her via her website or Facebook page.
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