Garland Tutorial

I've seen similar things all around the "interwebs", but I had the desire to make something fun for Christmas.  This is what I came up with and my step-by-step tutorial to go along with it.  It could easily be reproduced in different colors for a birthday party or just for fun.  I also made a smaller garland to hang on my piano as well as two small garlands to accent my lamp shades, and the garland pictured below on my staircase.

                

                

This is a really good excuse to use up any fabric you may have lying around from oh, I don't know, 1996.

                                       
                  

1. Pick out at least 5 different red/green/holiday fabrics.  You can do as many as you like, but I used 5.  I re-made this with my little sister and we used 7, I believe.  If you don't have a "stash" to use, you can go to the fabric store and buy anywhere from 1/8-1/4 yard each of as many different fabrics as you like.

                

2. IRON your fabric.  I skipped this step and regretted it later.

3. Pick a cup or something from your house that you can use to trace your circles.

                

4. Trace lots of circles if you are wanting to make a long garland or multiple garlands.  I think I traced around 25 of my main two colors and anywhere from 12-20ish of the other colors.  This is your project, so you may choose to do an even number of all of the patterns to make it cohesive, or you can make it so your garland is a little more random like mine.

                

5. Once you've traced all of your circles, cut them out.  I experimented and traced out some with regular shears and some with pinking shears.  You can't tell a difference at all from a far.  It was easier to cut with pinking shears because they are more forgiving (if you are doing this with children or aren't patient enough to cut out perfect circles)

6. Mix your circles up into a random order or in a pattern of your choosing.  It was easiest to sew when I had a stack to pull from.

 

7. Pull out your machine.  Don't be afraid of it.  It is your friend.  I chose to use red thread for my "string" of my garland.  Begin sewing, leaving about 2-3 inches of string on the end to have something to use to adhere it to the wall.  Continue sewing them together until you have your desired length.

Voila!  You've made a cool Christmas decoration with little money and time invested.