Simple Christmas felt garland craft

I love crafting with felt, it's so easy to work with and I love the soft texture and bright colours. This Christmas I made a really simple felt Christmas garland to add to my collection of homemade Christmas decorations.

I the same method that has worked well for two previous projects - my simple felt heart garland and my Halloween themed felt bunting. Using scraps of felt and a sewing machine it's a quick way to make some simple bunting that can be switched out according to season. 

This was a stash buster project for me, so I was limited by the felt colours in my stash. I've run out of red which is a bit of a disaster for Christmas crafting! But I had some pre-cut red circles left over from another project which worked perfectly, and I chose shapes based on the colours that I had available. 

I ended up with a red circle, a green Christmas tree, a golden bell and a brown gingerbread man, with each shape measuring around 4cm in height. I cut 10 of each shape and for this project I attempted to keep the shapes in the same pattern throughout. 

Tips for cutting out the shapes - I made a paper pattern for each shape which I pinned to the felt while cutting. Use small, sharp scissors, and don't worry too much about perfection!

When all the pieces are cut then I sewed them together. If you want to keep to an order make sure you know what you are doing, as once you start sewing it's easier if you can have the next one ready to go at all times. Before starting to sew, make sure to pull out a decent length of thread and then again at the end so that the felt garland will be easy to hang. 

Then just line up the shapes and sew them together! It's a bit of a fiddly job but it gets easier as you go along, I had several false starts! Just get the next piece ready to sew before you've finished the previous one, and squish them together a little bit as you sew each end.

The finished garland adds a lovely Christmas hint to the festive decorations, whether hung on the tree or elsewhere around the house!