Simple Christmas felt garland craft

I love crafting with felt, it's so easy to work with and I love the soft texture and bright colours. This Christmas I made a really simple felt Christmas garland to add to my collection of homemade Christmas decorations.

I the same method that has worked well for two previous projects - my simple felt heart garland and my Halloween themed felt bunting. Using scraps of felt and a sewing machine it's a quick way to make some simple bunting that can be switched out according to season. 

This was a stash buster project for me, so I was limited by the felt colours in my stash. I've run out of red which is a bit of a disaster for Christmas crafting! But I had some pre-cut red circles left over from another project which worked perfectly, and I chose shapes based on the colours that I had available. 

I ended up with a red circle, a green Christmas tree, a golden bell and a brown gingerbread man, with each shape measuring around 4cm in height. I cut 10 of each shape and for this project I attempted to keep the shapes in the same pattern throughout. 

Tips for cutting out the shapes - I made a paper pattern for each shape which I pinned to the felt while cutting. Use small, sharp scissors, and don't worry too much about perfection!

When all the pieces are cut then I sewed them together. If you want to keep to an order make sure you know what you are doing, as once you start sewing it's easier if you can have the next one ready to go at all times. Before starting to sew, make sure to pull out a decent length of thread and then again at the end so that the felt garland will be easy to hang. 

Then just line up the shapes and sew them together! It's a bit of a fiddly job but it gets easier as you go along, I had several false starts! Just get the next piece ready to sew before you've finished the previous one, and squish them together a little bit as you sew each end.

The finished garland adds a lovely Christmas hint to the festive decorations, whether hung on the tree or elsewhere around the house!

Halloween themed felt garland bunting craft

For a little while now I've been brainstorming craft projects with the intention of working my way through my craft supplies stash. One thing that I have in abundance is felt, and so I decided that with Halloween coming up I'd work on a simple felt Halloween craft!

I still love the simple felt heart garland bunting which I made a little while ago, and it hangs from our mantelpiece almost year round. I thought I could come up with something similar using Halloween colours and simple shapes. And here it is, embellished with sequins, my very easy Halloween felt garland:

I began by sketching out a few simple designs. I discovered some pre-cut black felt circles in my stash which I thought would fit well in between the shapes. I didn't have quite enough so I cut some more circles from grey felt, and made enough to alternate with my other designs. I made simple pumpkins, ghosts and witch hats, taking some shape inspiration from some gorgeous bunting at Easy Thing to Sew.

I cut my shapes a little smaller (about 3-4cm across) and designed them to be little more rounded so that they could be sewn closer together. I used some lovely dark yellow cotton for the sewing.

 

I used a sewing machine to make up the garland. It's a bit of a fiddly job to sew the shapes together as they are so small. I found that I had to sew across a shape and then lift the presser foot a little to pop the next one into place, with the edges nice and snug together. 

I was really pleased with how it looked, but I felt that it was missing something, especially on the ghosts. Wanting to continue crafting only with my stash I hunted out my big bag of sequins and sorted out some black circles for the eyes of the ghosts, gold squares for a buckle on the hats, and green circles to add a bit of colour to the pumpkins. They are glued in place, and I added sequins on both sides in case the shapes flip around while they are hanging. Subtle yet sparkly!

I have my bunting strung up across the fireplace, along with some fairy lights (don't worry, the fireplace underneath is disconnected so there is no fire risk, remember to be careful where you display bunting!)

While I was hanging it I thought something like this would also be great hung down in long strings across a doorway, maybe if you are hosting a Halloween party or greeting Trick or Treaters! 

If you like this Halloween felt craft then you may also like my Homemade Halloween felt bunting, using scraps of felt along with ribbon, buttons and sequins.

Homemade felt Easter bunting

One of my resolutions this year was to try and make a bit of a dent in my craft stash. In particular I have lots of felt and fabric, as well as drawers full of crafty bits and pieces like ribbon and buttons. I love crafting for the different seasons and celebrations, so I decided to make some felt Easter bunting to hang over the fireplace, inspired by my Halloween felt bunting.

I used the same cardboard template to cut out six flags in a variety of different pastel colours. I decided that three of the flags would have decorated Easter eggs and the other three would have a sheep, a chicken and a bunny.

For the different pictures I just searched online for line drawings of the shapes that I wanted, altering them a little to suit how I wanted them to look. I traced the designs from my computer screen onto some plain paper which I used to make templates for cutting out the felt pieces.

Once I had my six different designs planned out I went through my stash for embellishments that would fit. I used a lot of buttons for this bunting, and also various scraps of ribbon in shorter lengths which I had been hoarding. To sew the various parts together I turned to my collection of embroidery threads and cottons.

The bunting is strung together with a length of coloured thread - it was in a Christmas themed pack but I think it fits the bunting flags well! I used a needle to thread it through the flags so they can be easily positioned in case I hang the bunting in a different place in the future. I keep a small command hook on either side of the mantlepiece that I use to attach any decorations.

I'm really pleased with my seasonal bunting! I know that Easter isn't for a little while yet but it has inspired me to get out our small collection of Easter decorations too,and my fireplace makes me smile every time I see it.