October Button Lover's Club: Jolly Garland

There is something about Christmas that just beckons for handmade holiday decor in your home. We fell in love when we spotted the To Be Jolly fabric collection from 1 Canoe 2 for Moda Fabrics! We just knew that it was the perfect fabric for some new handmade decor pieces for our homes this year.

The individual motifs on the Festive Jolly Greetings Quilt Panel reminded us of Christmas cards. We found ourselves thinking back to garlands we used to make from Christmas cards sent by family and friends. It was so fun to hang the garlands all around the house and remember each person whose card was included.

We decided to create a garland reminiscent of those Christmas card garlands using the Festive Jolly Greetings quilt panel. The quilt panel will provide plenty of blocks for a garland as well as a few extras blocks that would make wonderful coordinating pillows!

Read on to learn how to make your own Jolly Garland!

Supplies:
To Be Jolly Festive Jolly Greetings Quilt Panel
Fabric bias strip 2.5” x length of garland (determined in step 8)
Wool Felt – (2) 5.5 x 7” rectangles per motif block
Handmade and Hand-dyed Buttons from Just Another Button Company
Fusible

Instructions:

A printable copy of these instructions is available here- Button Lover's Club: Words with Buttons Jolly Garland PDF

3. Without steam, iron fusible to the backside of the fabric panel. You only need to cover the motifs you plan to use. Let the fusible cool.

4. Use a rotary tool or scissors to cut out the motifs. I rough-cut mine apart with a rotary tool and then used scissors to trim off all the dark green that was left outside the colored motif borders.

5. Choose wool felt background colors to coordinate with each motif. Including a variety of wool felt colors adds a lot of charm to the garland, and it gives you the opportunity to pick colors that help each motif stand out. Make notes of how many motif backgrounds you’ll need from each wool felt color.

6. Cut two 5.5 x 7” background pieces from the wool felt for each motif.

7. Fuse each motif in the center of one of its wool felt background pieces. Sew the two layers together. I used matching thread and sewed ¼” from the edge of the motif.

8. Calculate how much garland base you need for your garland base. Take the width of your hanging spot—add 10% for draping and 20” for tying or looping at the ends (10” per end). For example, my mantel is 60” wide, so I needed 60” + 6” (10% of 60”) + 20” (for ends) = 86” total.

If you don’t have enough fabric to cut one continuous bias piece for the garland base, cut strips on the bias and sew them together before proceeding to the next step.

9. Fold the garland base strip in half across the width, right sides together, and press. Sew along one short end and then along the long, raw edge to create a long tube, open on one end. Use ¼” seams. Turn the tube right-side-out and press flat with the seam running along the top edge. Fold the raw edges of the open end of the tube to the inside and sew it closed by hand.

10. Tie a knot 10” from each end of the garland base that you just created. The area between the knots is where you’ll sew your motif blocks. It’s best to lay the garland base flat on a large surface (I used the floor) and arrange your motif blocks on top until you’re happy with the layout.