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A felt garland is one of those crafts that looks like a lot of work and is mostly repetition. Katie from The Crafty Blog Stalker cuts felt sheets into small strips, pinches each one in the middle and strings it on cotton thread. Hundreds of strips later you have a fat, ruffled rainbow rope. Her finished garland is 81 inches long and used 18 sheets of felt. It is a good project to work on in front of the TV.
Katie's numbers make planning easy. One 9 x 12 sheet cut into 1 x 3 inch pieces gives 36 pieces, and that packs into about 4.5 inches of garland. So:
| Garland length | Felt sheets |
|---|---|
| 3 feet | 8 |
| 6 feet | 16 |
| 9 feet | 24 |
Those counts assume the strips are packed tight, the way she does it. Space them out and the same felt goes further, but the garland looks thinner. Buy a few extra sheets anyway. Running short halfway through a color is annoying.
Katie used a thicker felt, about 1.4 mm. Thick felt holds its ruffle and does not flop. Thin craft felt still works, but the garland looks flatter and may need more pieces per inch. Wool blend felt has the richest colors and cuts the cleanest. Acrylic felt is the cheapest and comes in big multipacks.
Drape it over a headboard, a mantel or a doorway. Wrap it around a Christmas tree in place of tinsel. It is soft and light, so it is safe in a kid's room or over a crib rail out of reach. Grandkids can help sort colors and pinch strips while you work the needle. Store it loosely coiled in a box between seasons so the ruffles do not crush.
Try a Christmas garland or a paper heart garland. Use up leftover felt on felt acorns or a felt owl ornament.
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Make a fluffy felt garland from felt strips and cotton thread. An easy project: about 3 hours. Materials cost about $10 to $25. You need 8 things, including white cotton thread, rotary cutter and self healing cutting mat. The 10 steps start with gather Felt Sheets, Thread and a Rotary Cutter, stack Two Felt Sheets on the Cutting Mat, cut the Felt Into 1-Inch Strips, cut the Felt Strips Into 3-Inch Pieces and pull Off a Long Length of Garland Thread.
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Set out your felt sheets in every color you want. Katie has eight colors and two or more sheets of each, since she was not sure how much she would need. Add a ball of cotton thread, a needle, a rotary cutter, scissors, a self healing mat and a quilting ruler. Check that the needle's eye is big enough for the thread before you start.
No rotary cutter? Sharp fabric scissors work. Cutting takes longer.
Lay one sheet on the mat and line a second one up on top of it. Cutting two at a time halves the cutting work. Smooth them flat with your hands so the edges match. This is not quilting, so the pieces do not have to be exact. A little variation in size will disappear once the garland ruffles up.
Line the felt up on a grid line of the mat. The ruler then sits square.
Lay the quilting ruler over the felt with the edge on the one inch mark. Hold the ruler down firmly with your flat hand. Open the rotary cutter and roll it along the ruler's edge, away from you, in one steady pass. Slide the ruler over another inch and cut again. Work across the whole sheet until it is all strips.
Always close the rotary cutter blade when you set it down.
Turn the ruler crosswise over the strips and cut them every three inches. Keep the strips together so one cut does several at once. Each pair of sheets now turns into a small stack of 1 x 3 inch pieces. Keep going with the rest of your felt. Katie cut 18 sheets, two of each color, and kept spare sheets in case she ran short.
Toss the cut pieces into one big pile so the colors mix as you string.
Pull off a long piece of cotton thread, as long as you want the finished garland plus some extra. One long piece means you never have to join two threads in the middle. Thread the needle and tie a good, solid knot at the far end. That knot stops the first felt piece from sliding off. A long thread tangles easily, so lay it out straight.
Fold the thread back on itself a few times to keep it under control.
Pick up a felt piece and pinch it in the middle so the long sides fold toward each other. Push the needle straight through the center of that pinch. Pull the piece down the thread to the knot. The pinch is what gives the garland its ruffled, fluffy look. A flat piece strung through the middle stays flat.
Go through the fold, not near an edge, so the felt does not tear free.
Keep pinching and stringing, grabbing colors at random from the pile. Every few inches, slide the pieces down so they pack tight together. A tight garland looks full and round. This is the long part of the project, so settle in with a show. Katie's tip: it takes time, but every step is easy.
String several pieces on the needle, then pull them down the thread at once.
Once the last piece is on, pull the thread as tight as you can so the pieces sit snug. Push the needle back through that last felt piece. Tie a knot, then tie another one or two so it holds. Felt is soft and a single knot can work loose over time, especially on a garland that gets moved around.
A dab of fabric glue on the final knot makes it permanent.
Decide how you will hang it. To tie the garland to hooks or a headboard, leave a tail of thread at this end to match the one at the start. If you will drape it or wrap it around a tree, trim the thread right up to the knot with scissors. Either way, fluff the pieces with your fingers to hide the thread.
Leave tails about 6 inches long. That is enough to tie a bow.
Lay the garland along a yardstick to see how long it is. Katie's measured 81 inches from 18 sheets of felt. That works out to about 4.5 inches of garland per 9 x 12 sheet. Note your own number, since it changes with felt thickness and how tight you pack. It makes buying felt for the next garland easy.
For a long garland, measure in sections and add them up.
Keep going
How to Make a Valentine's Heart Wreath
More on this topic, picked for this felt garland.
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How to Make a Felt Garland - Ruffled Rainbow Strip Garland
E6000
E6000 Craft Adhesive, Clear (3.7 oz)
The industrial-strength craft glue that bonds glass, wood, ceramic, metal, fabric, and concrete. The one adhesive most craft projects reach for.
Gorilla
Gorilla Dual-Temp Full-Size Hot Glue Gun
Dual-temp so it handles delicate florals and heavy materials alike. A precise nozzle and built-in stand make it the everyday craft-table gun.
OLFA
OLFA 18" x 24" Self-Healing Cutting Mat
The pro-standard cutting surface. Gridlines for square cuts, self-healing so blades never leave grooves, and big enough for paper, fabric, and leather.
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