This DIY fabric garland is really simple to make and it adds so much color to a room. This is a great project to add to a mantel like my Shabby Chic St. Patrick’s Day Mantel, to a baby or child’s room or to use for decoration at a party. I could totally see this as decor at a graduation party with the colors of the graduate, maybe on the cake table. That would be really cute, I will have to keep that in mind! 😉 Also, it is very inexpensive to make, I just used fabric I had on hand so for me it was free. However even if you had to buy the fabric, it would still be cheap.

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For this project you will need:

Coordinating fabrics – I used 9 different fabrics, fat quarters (18”x 22”) would work perfect for this project.
Burlap roll
Twine or string
Command hooks
Cutting mat, rotary cutter and 24″ ruler – this is optional, you can just use scissors to cut your fabric but this makes cutting fabric so much easier!
June Tailor slotted cutting ruler (optional)
Scissors

In addition to the different fabric, I also incorporated burlap into the strips to add more texture and to tie in the color of the burlap on the silhouettes and the pallet board backdrop on my mantel. This burlap roll is nice to have on hand when you want to use burlap in your projects.

When you have to cut a lot of strips from fabric, such as in quilting, this slotted cutting ruler from June Tailor is awesome! It cuts down on the time it takes to measure, cut and then move your ruler over to cut another strip. It is so easy and quick to cut strips with this! The only bad thing I have noticed is that there is some flexibility in the plastic so you have to make sure you have your rotary cutter placed straight down while cutting, otherwise it could go under the plastic a little and your cuts would be off by a bit. This does not matter at all for this project, but it would make a difference in using it for making a quilt with a lot of pieces. As you can see on mine, I put blue tape as a marker for the places I needed to cut. That was for a different project though. But you could use that tip too.

Cut your fabric into strips that are 1.5” x 22”. Some of my fabric was a little longer than that and I actually liked the varying lengths so I left them like that. Mine varied in lengths from 20”-26”. If you use fat quarters for this project, yours will all be the 22” long. The strips will be folded in half so the actual length of the strips when it is hanging from the string will be 11”.

I wasn’t sure how many strips that I would need to cut, so I cut 10 of each color to start with. I figured I could always cut more if I needed more. It ended up that I used 8-9 of each color on my mantel. My mantel is 53” wide to give you a frame of reference. I also went around each side by a couple inches to cover the command hooks.

When cutting burlap, I have a good tip for you. To get a straight line, clip one strand on both ends and pull that strand out. This leaves you with a space that makes a good guide to cut the burlap with your scissors. This will also help with the burlap not fraying on you. For this project, I just measured along and clipped strands at 1.5” apart. Then I pulled out the strands and cut along those lines.

After cutting all your fabric strips, hang up string or twine to span the length of wherever you are putting your garland. I used command hooks on each side to tie the string to. Command hooks are awesome! We use them all the time with decorations. They are easy to put up and take down without leaving holes in your walls or tearing off the drywall.

I arranged my strips in the order of color that I wanted them to go trying spread out the greens and creams/tans.

To make the fabric tassel, take a strip of fabric and fold it in half. Holding the strip with the the two ends, come up with it behind the string, leaving the looped end on the bottom. With your other hand, open the loop of the strip. Bring the ends down through the loop. Pull on the ends to make the knot tighter. You can pull on one at a time to make the knot even smaller. That’s it! So easy! Sorry a couple of the pictures are out of focus a bit, I had a little helper photographing this since Mr. Wonderful was gone and didn’t notice that until I was editing pictures! However, it still gives you the idea on what you should be doing.

Move the tassel all the way over to the beginning of the string and repeat the process with all the remaining strips until you reach the end. The burlap is a little trickier to pull through, you may get some strings that hang off the side, but that is ok. It adds to the shabbiness. 😉 Like I previously said, I added some tassels over the command hooks to cover those as best I could. It makes it look more finished.

Just a tip, if you are using fabric that you have on hand, you may want to iron it a little more than I did. Otherwise you will end up with creases in it like these. 🙂

I hope you try this simple and fun project. It really is very easy and festive. I love that depending on the colors you use, you can change the feel of it. Don’t these colors scream St. Patrick’s Day to you? 😉