Felt Leaves Fall Garland Tutorial
Fall is just starting to creep in around here. In the past week we’ve noticed a few trees in our yard that have leaves that are tipped with gold. Chilly mornings have led to the kids digging deeper into their drawers pulling out long sleeved shirts (although by mid-afternoon these are really too warm to wear) and maybe most noticeably the food requests have started changing. Chili with cornbread and Vegetable Beef Soup with dumplings have made it to the table in the last week. Today after school we plan to switch out our seasonal decor and prepare our nature table for the fall. We will also dress the mantle with our Felt Leaves Fall Garland.
Last fall the kids and I made this Felt Leaves Fall Garland together. This was originally posted on Wee Folk Activities in September 2009.
It has been cold and rainy all day. So after we finished up our school activities we raided the craft cabinet for a project. This is what we came up with… a Felt Leaves Fall Garland.
Felt Leaves Fall Garland Materials
- Various pieces of fall colored felt (craft felt is perfectly fine here – no need for wool)
- Yarn
- Yarn needle
- Lots of beads with large holes
- Leaf Pattern (get one from Wee Folk Art or collect leaves from your yard and trace)
- Optional: Embroidery floss or fabric paint if you would like to add the leaf vein details – after trying one, we decided to leave ours plain.
Cut out a bunch of felt leaves in autumn colors (we used 13).
Cut a long piece of yarn (3 to 4 yards) or for multiple family members cut out a yard of yarn each.
Poke the yarn needle through the top of a leaf about 1/2″ from the edge and tie a large knot on one end.
String about 12″ of beads and then add another felt leaf. Continue until you have strung all of your garland.
We each beaded a one yard section starting with a leaf and ending with a section of beads.
I took all the completed sections, tied them together, added the last leaf so both ends ended with a leaf, then trimmed the yarn to make our one long garland piece.
I think it adds a fun festive touch to our mantle.
9 Comments
Michelle
Your garland turned out
Submitted by kimara on Mon, 09/28/2009 – 22:03.
Your garland turned out great! The multi-colored beads really added a festive fall touch!
Super cute
Submitted by Christie (not verified) on Tue, 09/29/2009 – 13:56.
We don’t have a mantle but it looks so cute I may have to find a place to put one!
We did it!
Submitted by Christie (not verified) on Thu, 10/01/2009 – 00:59.
We made this today. I had Cali make it with a twist. Come by and see. Thanks for the great idea! Cheers!
I just love this!!
Submitted by Laura (not verified) on Tue, 10/06/2009 – 10:10.
I just love this!!
Janna
This is a great idea!!! I can’t wait to try this with my kiddos (or just make one myself!). ;o)
Gill
I just wondered, how do you fasten it up? Do you have nails hammered into your mantle? Our mantle is solid slate and I struggle to hang anything…usually I loop things rather gingerly around heavy candlesticks!
Michelle
We have clear thumbtacks evenly spaced on the top edge of our monstrously long mantle…. seriously it is the whole length of the room. I leave them in most of the time… you can barely see them and they are used for birthday garlands, hanging our stockings, etc. Not sure what I would suggest for slate.
Kimara
Instead of using your candlesticks, what about stocking holders? Many of them are decorative for the holidays, but you can also get simple ones like these wrought iron ones http://www.finehomedisplays.com/proddetail.asp?prod=MH-F-5vwi or these brass ones http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0012PYBE8?ie=UTF8&tag=weefolkartbooks-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B0012PYBE8
It would be an expense to begin with, but you would be able to use them over and over again whenever you wanted to swag something on your mantle.
Gill
Oh those are lovely and would do the job beautifully.
In looking at them closely, the way they clip onto the mantle reminds me of those plastic clips that are used to hold a tablecloth onto the garden table. Perhaps they could be used, with artfully placed foliage or something to disguise them. Thank you for your reply and inspiration. Gill.
Heather
This is a beautiful, and a very fun and tactile project for the wee ones
Astrid
This will be the next project I start with my boys!! What a beautiful, simple and happy addition to the fall decorations! They will both love doing this!
Thanks again for being such an inspiration!
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