Vintage Garland Tutorial And Giveaway

Turn your fabric scraps into beautiful garland

This garland was born from a scrappy scarf,  that a friend gave me. I've made them in all kinds of colors, but this color combination is my favorite. My second favorite is a mixture of bright colored fabric and ribbon. Each garland is 6 feet long, but you can easily tie them end to end, for any length you need. I had so much fun with my last giveaway, that I wanted to have another.  I would love to give away 2 six foot garlands to one lucky winner. To get your name in the drawing. Leave a comment, join as a new follower,  post about the project, or put it on your sidebar. Leave a comment for each one, so I can add you multiple times. I will draw a name on the 22nd of December. Luckily this garland looks nice year around, but I'll get it in the mail asap. I had to stop this giveaway a few days early, but checkout my 100 follower giveaway going on Dec 20-Jan 10th.
Congrats to Meghan at LOVEPETUNIA, you are the winner!

Twenty five finished garlands, part of a Christmas order for a local store. Click on pictures for larger view.

Garland displayed in my entryway at recent holiday show.

Garland on white Christmas tree.

The first step in making the garland, is cutting squares, lots and lots of squares. I cut 1 1/2 inch to 2 inch, they don't have to perfectly square. Lots of mine are more rectangle than square. The bigger they are however, the faster the construction of the garland is. I use burlap, muslin, fabric from sample books, old tea towels, wool, lace, any neutral colored fabric, even old clothes.

Cut a 6 foot piece if seam binding. Lay your first fabric square face down. Sandwich the seam binding between the first square and the next one that is face up. Mix up your squares, layer smaller ones on larger.Anything goes with this project.

Continue to sew your squares to your seam binding. I like to use sheet music, book pages, ribbon, wool, anything that adds texture and interest.

Layer shear ribbon here and there.

When you get to the end of your seam binding, you are finished with the first step of your garland.

Don't worry if you have spaces between some of your squares. You will be tying various ribbons and fabric between them that will hide the seam binding gap.

Cut 4-5 inch strips of fabric, lace, ribbon, yarn, seam binding or anything you think fits into the color theme.

I usually tie in between every three squares.

Ready for hanging