Repli-Kate: Easy-to-Make Fall Garland

Thanksgiving is just a few days away, and as I prepare for two of our favorite people to visit again for the holiday, I'm dusting off some of the decorations I made for last year's festivities. My favorite is my leaf garland, so I figured I would share how you can make your own!

Last year, in anticipation of hosting my first Thanksgiving dinner, I went to Paper Source to check out their decorations and to stock up on some craft stuff (I.love.that.store.). While there, I saw this adorable garland of felt leaves. Thinking it would make an adorable addition to my decor, I checked the price tag and winced... it was much more than I wanted to spend. My disappointment quickly disappeared when I realized that this would be an easy thing to replicate - all I would need is felt, some brown thread, and a sewing machine. Easy peasy!

While I don't have step-by-step photos, I don't think you need them to be able to replicate this yourself. It's incredibly easy - even if you don't know how to sew (I had to look up how to thread my machine, that's how knowledgable I am). Here's what you do:

1.) Decide on one leaf design for each color of felt that you have and make a stencil out of something like a manila folder. On the folder, you'll either want to draw leaves yourself or you can use images from the internet. I went the internet route, since my drawing skills aren't fantastic. I searched "leaf coloring pictures" and had several simple designs to choose from. I printed them out on regular computer paper, cut them out, put them on the manila folder, and traced around the edges. Then I cut out the leaves from the manila folder and had my stencils :) It's possible you could skip the folder and just make a stencil out of computer paper, but I thought the thickness of the folder made it easier to trace onto the felt.

2.) Use your leaf stencils and a sharpie to draw the outline of leaves on your felt

3.) Cut the leaves out

4.) Thread your sewing machine with brown thread and pull out several inches of thread before you start sewing on the first leaf (so you have an end to use for hanging). Then, put down your first leaf and sew straight down the middle and off the leaf. Continue sewing for a couple of inches to provide some space and then put another leaf down and sew in a straight line over that leaf. Repeat over and over again until you get through your leaves and have a large garland.

That's it! That's all you do :)

Last year's Thanksgiving table

If you have leftover leaves, you can sprinkle them on your tabletop like I did above :) 

In case I don't blog before Thursday, have a fantastic Thanksgiving!

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