This Scrappy Festive Garland came about because I really like to use my supplies well and to the furthest extent that it is possible. Christmas fabric is so beautiful and it is hard to throw it away, even when you are left with the smallest scrappy pieces.
I know I’m not alone out there.
Over the last few years, I have even more of a reason to use my scrappy bits well. I have a lot of young quilters in my life! Now we are going through more fabric in really fun ways, but it means that our scrap pile quickly fills up. Not only that, because my children are their own people… sometimes the leftover scraps are not the ones that I would highlight in a scrappy project myself (she whispers: because I didn’t pick the fabric out to begin with…). It’s important to be honest 🙂
Garlands really come in all shapes and sizes. They are a perfect and easy craft to make together during an afternoon. Cranberries and Popcorn are a traditional garland, but can be hard to manage with kids. This time of year is the perfect time to use those fabric scraps to make some festive scrappy garland. The scraps that we used here were small, so that meant that they didn’t have to all be Christmas fabric. We focused on similar colors and loved making these together.
Gather Supplies & Prep Fabric
Gather Supplies:
Lots of fabric scraps
Scissors
Twine (I found some with some sparkles at Michael’s)
We cut our scrap fabrics into long, thin pieces:
At least 1″ wide and 5-6″ long
You will see in the picture that the size varied and that’s what made this project fun for my kids! Some of our strips were closer to 2″ wide.
We rolled out some of our twine and started tying the scraps to the twine.
Double-knot the scraps to make them more secure.
Use the scraps that you have to make a fun pattern. We grouped the scraps into similar colors: black, turquoise, dark green, light green, red, and pink. Then we alternated the scrap we chose for each of the colors to make the patterns spread out along our garland line.
Cut the end of your twine from the roll when it’s long enough!
Decorate!
One of our garlands made it onto our keyboard stand- you’ll see this one is more spread out, revealing the sparkly twine.
A family member was very interested in what we made as we sang by the piano.
You can make a long strand to wind around a banister, tree, or mantel or gather two ends together to make a festive droopy wreath!
I can’t wait to see your projects using this technique! You can find more scrap friendly projects for all ages on my blog and in the Sewing Circle Tutorials!
Until then, keep on festively creating! <3 Kate