Nordic Tree Garland

Last month, I saw a random clip art photo of a tree garland that I thought was cute.  

I had also been eyeing a lot of red and white Nordic print fabrics in a few different Etsy shops.  

So, I put the two together to make this:

Cute stuffed little Christmas trees made out of Nordic inspired cotton and strung by hemp on a piece of twine.  I love it! It was super easy and quick to throw together.  Did I bother to take photos of the process as I went?  Of course not.  That would have made too much sense!!

Once I decided what size and shape I wanted my trees to be, I just made a quick template (out of my most recent Pottery Barn catalog cover) and started cutting trees out of my fabric.  I purchased a set of 5 fat quarters from Christmas Jul, which gave me PLENTY of fabric (I actually have enough trees/fabric cut to make probably 5 or 6 sets of these garland).

Putting right sides together, I sewed along one edge, placed my hemp in the top corner piece for the loop and then sewed down the other side (when sewing with right sides together, the loop end of the hemp has to be placed inside the tree with the 2 ends sticking out the top.  Does that make sense?).  I did sew along the bottom side as well, but left about a 1" opening that allowed me to: 

a) flip the tree right side out  

b) put stuffing in my tree and 

c) place my tree trunk in to be sewn in.

After flipping all the trees right side out, I ironed them and stuffed them.  The little trunks? Absolutely no rhyme or reason to them at all.  No measuring or anything.  Just snipped a square of fabric, placed a tiny bit of stuffing in it and stuck in the bottom of my tree.  I then zipped across the bottom of my tree(s) again with my sewing machine to sew the trunk in place.  That's it!

A quick and easy project that can be done in one evening.

Felt Garland: A New Obsession

I've seen a few different felt garlands around Pinterest and Etsy, and decided that I wanted to make one for my daughter's upcoming 1st birthday.  I debated whether or not to cut the felt shapes out myself, but when I found an adorable little Etsy shop that had a ton of different shapes in an amazing variety of colors for super, duper cheap; I decided that route would be much easier.  And then, I decided that I needed not one but three different types of garland.  And to be perfectly honest, I will probably decide I need even more.

(Btw, the Etsy shop?  {Paper4u}. I got 3 different themed packages of felt shapes for less than $20.  Yes, they are in Latvia, but I still got my order in less than 3 weeks.  I highly recommend them should you want to make felt garland the super easy way!)

The first garland I put together was in brightly colored, whimsical hearts.

This one I plan on using for my daughter's birthday.  I also plan on using it for Valentine's Day decor.

  All you do is decide which order you want your shapes in and then sew them together!  I just sewed super slow and fed each individual shape as my machine was still running, which gave me the spacing I wanted between each heart.

This was super fun for my kids to help with as well; they enjoyed picking out which color to put on next (great practice for learning patterns!).

And fyi?  The foam boards I used to to store fabric (you can read about that here) are also perfect for storing garland.

 A total of $5.00 and 10 minutes later, I have a garland of hearts that I love.  Not too shabby!

After the hearts came plain circles for Halloween.

And as soon as I get caught up with my other projects, I'll also have a garland using these cute leaves for autumn/Thanksgiving.

So.   What occasion are you going to use as an excuse to make some super cute garland?