Hi Everyone!
In the spirit of Christmas today I am back to share this super Fast, Inexpensive, and Easy DIY Fabric Garland that seriously saved my Christmas Tree from blah-ville. Yes blah-ville, it’s a real place where hard work on Christmas decorations goes to die of boredom.
So my Christmas Tree death of boredom is really a two part story. Part one involves me, an over zealous eager Christmas decorator getting all jazzed and decorating her Christmas Tree in the day light. Then realizing there is a big old ugly dead spot right in the middle after the sun goes down. Yes seriously this happened to me this year. Don’t believe me? Check out my Instagram feed for all the details:
Still don’t believe me, her is a crummy cell phone snap I sent to my husband in disgust when the tree magically turned on at is scheduled time. Can you see it now? Yes, it was terrible, frustrating, and very very annoying.
The only saving grace is, that after standing back and really looking at my tree, I realized that the 3″ wired ribbon garland just wasn’t cutting it. And if I was going to have to take the whole tree apart to fix the dead spot, I might as well change out the garland and make it right.
So here is where my brain had to go to work. Now I’m sure many of you have seen a few articles lately on using anything from scarves, to dusters, to blankets as Christmas tree garland and I will say that all of these posters have a serious stroke of genius since their trees all look AMAZING. Except on thing. They are not amazing on the wallet. I looked and looked for cheap scarves. But everything I found was either too ugly or $15 each and since the recipe calls for 12 scarves… all I have to say is no. So after thinking back to Halloween and my trip to Jo-Anns, I remembered that they had a beautiful selection of flannel plaid fabric.
So after walking the aisles of Jo-Ann’s looking high and low for fun plaids I finally decided on 3 yards of this adorable red, gray, and white checked plaid. Better yet it was half off, so the whole lot cost me $16 including tax.
- 3 yards of your favorite Christmas Fabric
- Fabric Scissors
- Cutting Mat and Rotary Cutter (Optional)
I started out by neatly folding my fabric four times to the my cuts would run parallel to the shortest end of the fabric. Then measured about 7 inches from the short side of the fabric. There are two reasons I chose to cut along the short end vs. the long. 1. it’s a lot easier to cut and 2. short sections of garland are less likely to get tangled in the tree as it being applied and easier to manipulate once in place.
If you choose to cut using a rotary cutter and cutting mat like I did, it will take you less than 5 minutes to cut all 7 yards. If you are opting to use scissors instead, you may want to grab a seat. It will probably take you a few minutes to make all those cuts.
After all my garland sections were cut I started adding them to my tree moving in a downward spiral.
The key to really great looking garland is to tuck small sections of it back into the tree creating gaps. If you have an artificial tree you can bend on of the branches back to help hold the garland in place.
What a difference adding a thicker fabric garland made! I love the result and my wallet loves the price!!
Thank you for stopping by to check out my Fast, Inexpensive, and Easy DIY Fabric Garland! I hope it inspires you to make some improvements to your tree this year!
This is a really great idea, Cat! The tree looks strait out of a magazine now! Love it!
Thanks Iris! Thank you so much for everything!!!
Beautiful job with that DIY garland! I’ve never been one for garlands on our tree, otherwise I’d surely do something like this.
Thank you so much Ariel!
This garland is beautiful, great idea!
Thank you Roxanne!
Not clear to me how long and how wide each piece is. 7″ x 3 yds??
Looks beautiful…W
Very clever and I’m going to do it too.
Thanks.
Hi Beverly! Each piece is 7″ x 58″ because that was the width of my fabric (total my fabric was 58″ x 3yds). I cut it along the short edge of my fabric. As opposed to cutting it 7″ by 3 yds because the smaller pieces are easier to apply to the tree. I hope this helps!
Cat
It looks GREAT! What a genius idea!
Thank you so much Amanda!!
Your tree is GAWJUS! That is redneckese for gorgeous, btw. Ha! Really, this is pure genius! One question, did you hem the sides? I’ guess if not flannel doesn’t fray easily. Plus, that would be a lot of hemming, huh? I withdraw the question and slink away….it’s still gorgeous.
Hi Denise!
I decided not to hem the edges for the exact reason you said, it would be so much hemming! The other reason I decided not to hem it is because the fabric won’t get a lot of use. So it shouldn’t start fraying from over handling. I hope that helps you! I really appreciate you stopping by and commenting!
Love it! I bought 5 inch wide ribbon and I still feel like it’s too thin. Now I know what the problem is! Great tutorial.
Thank you so much Rachel!! Fabric is way less expensive then the ribbon is too!!
The new fabric garland makes such a difference!! I love the plaid pattern and I think I need to get a rotary cutter!!
Rotary cutters are amazing! I have used mine for everything!!! Wall paper, fabric, you name it I’ve probably used it!
Well, I can’t get over the difference between the 3″ garland and the flannel! It really fills in the tree so nicely. I am for sure gonna try this next year! Thanks so much for sharing your idea with us 🙂
Thank you Karen! At first I wasn’t sure it would really change the look, but it made such a difference!!
Love the garland! The thick garland is definitely better. I will be making some for our tree next year 🙂
Beautiful garland and beautiful tree! Can’t wait to try this next year.
Thank you so much Brittany!!
How tall is your tree. Just trying to see how far the 3 yards will go!! Thank you! I love this idea!!
My tree is 9′ tall. Although I when it’s on the stand it feels more like 12 🙂
Love the look and want to try it
Forgive my ignorance, but what do you do between the lengths to keep it looking like one long strand and not like a bunch of shorter strands? This is something I have always struggled with when it comes to garland. How do you hide the ends between each strand?
Because I wove the fabric in and out of the tree i just tucked the ends together in one of the natural tucks. This way there weren’t any ends hanging out.
Question-is the material flannel? If not is the back white or is it same print on both sides?
It was a flannel, so the patter was on both sides. 🙂 Thank you!