Festive Felt Garland

Finished festive garland is approximately 54'' long from end star to end star.

    Did you know that using your laser on felt is quite simple? I originally did not think that a laser and felt would work well together. However, the laser cuts the felt like butter with clean lines. I designed and made a simple festive star and snowball garland. I used the garland to jazz up the kitchen window over the sink. On the main level of the cabin, there is not much space for décor, so garland hung from the curtain rods are a great use of space to display festive items for the holidays. I used red stars with white ‘snowballs’ for Christmas. You could interchange hearts for Valentines Day or add a splash of blue for Independence Day. AND, here’s the good news, you don’t need a laser to cut the patterns! This project has been adapted for scissor work too. Here’s the step by step to make your own star garland:

Items you Need
- laser or scissors & marker
- 4 flat felt 8x10 sheets, color of your choice
- bundle of embroidery string, colors of your choice
- large sewing needle (longer than your styrofoam balls)
- cotton stuffing
- 1 ½” styrofoam or cotton round puffs, color of your choice


Instructions
1. Create your star pattern for the laser. For this project, a 4’’ star was designed.
2. Laser cut the stars. Make sure you cut an even number of stars. I cut 14 stars to make 7 stars on the garland. If you don’t have a laser, trace your star pattern onto the felt with a marker and cut out with a scissors.
3. Thread your needle with 3’ of embroidery string. For this project, I used white embroidery thread. It stands out nicely with the red colored felt I chose for the stars. Start sewing two stars together, front to back. It doesn’t have to be perfect, that’s the beauty of it! Be sure to pause to leave one or two legs of the star unsewn to ‘stuff’ the middle of the star with about a dollar coin size of cotton. Once the star is stuffed, finish sewing the star closed. Tie a small knot at the end, making sure you land/end your stitch on the same side of the star you started on. The knotted side will be your back side of the star. Repeat this step until all stars have been sewn together in twos.
4. Cut about a 6’ piece of embroidery string. Tie a loop knot near the end of the string.
5. Tie it onto the large sewing needle. Start with a star and ON THE BACK SIDE of one of the legs, insert the needle and push it through to the star leg directly across from the leg you first started from. This way, the stars will hang with ease on the garland and not show the messy backside. Slide the star down to the knot you created at the other end of the thread.
6. After one star, I used three styrofoam balls, but you can space them out or use more in between each star. Take your needle and press it through straight to the other side of one styrofoam ball. I had to press the backside on a hard surface to push the needle through to the other side. Once needle is pulled through the ball, slide the ball down the string to meet the first star. Repeat two more times.
7. Repeat steps 5 and 6 until your stars are all strung.
8. Cut off needle and tie another loop knot at the end. Your garland is ready to hang!


Send Wild North your photos of your work and we will display them proudly on the website!

Our laser is mounted on the CNC machine and it cuts the stars out of felt.

Red felt stars are being sewn together by hand with the white embroidery thread. I left some slack on each star which was trimmed in the end.