I thought I would share how I make fun and simple garlands to brighten a  spot in my home or to festoon a party.I am a huge garland fan and have quite a few that I hang about my house on occasion. I love all kinds and thought I would share this fun vintage inspired one.

So Let’s make a garland.

You will need some twill tape, ribbon, braid, or rope.  Some fabric scraps cut at 4.5″ wide x 6″, some fun doilies or embroidered fabric. You can also add some fun embellishments, ribbon, lace, mini doilies, etc.  You will also need, a sewing machine, or needle and thread to sew by hand, or a glue gun. This can be a no sew project if you like. I also used a ruler, straight pins, and scissors.

Once I have all my supplies and my pendants cut I layout my order and fill in with doilies. I then added in my fun embellishments as shown below.

 

To sew on I leave a 10″ tail on either end to hang the garland from. You can tie it to something or pin or tape it up.

I did pin my pendants/flags to the twill, about 1/2″ under the twill, and about 1/2″ apart.

Here I show you the backside so you can see that I stitched the pendants and doilies about 1/8″ up from the bottom of the twill. I just sewed one long stitch across the twill. I did not stop and restart on each pendant. This works seamlessly with simple thread to match your ribbon. If you are hand stitching you can sew the same way or stitch each pendant individually.

And enjoy your lovely vintage inspired garland.

 

You could cut your pendants to have a shaped bottom or sew them as below so that the garland has no raw edge pendants.

 

My fabrics came from thrifted vintage sheets, this is a fabulous way to acquire a lot of fabric for little money usually $2-$5 each.  Don’t let a stain hinder you either you can cut around it, the main things I make sure of is that is mostly or all cotton and that they are not worn through. The main exception to the all cotton rule is if it is an amazing print.  I also search out doilies whenever I am thrifting, junking, or antiquing, they are a little hard to come by lately so expect to pay $.50 – $1.00 each depending on size. I purchased my twill tape on etsy from a seller that no longer has twill tape. But I have bought it from several places on etsy.

I would love to see any garlands you have made or make from this tutorial.

Thank you so much for stopping by!