Tutorial: How to Make a Felted Holiday Garland

A guest post by Jenna Thompson of Small Bird Handcrafted Jewelry.

I love handmade Christmas decorations, but I hardly had any that were made by my own hands”¦until now”¦

I think I meant to make this felted garland last year”¦but I never got around to it. (Thats a familiar tune around here this time of year.)  It was not *quite* as quick and easy as I had hoped, but thats probably due, in part, to my perfectionism rearing its ugly head halfway through this thing. Thats not to say that it was difficult, by any means. I just added some extra steps.

I used about 1.5 oz. wool roving in several colors, and got about 48 balls out of it. I needed two pairs of stockings to tie up the roving, and used the washing machine technique for felting. The problem was that wherever the stocking gathered between knots, it created a crease in the felted ball. I wound up with 48 little brightly colored”¦fannies (which you can sort of see in the bowl in the photo below). Ahem. So I hauled my fanny to the craft store and bought some needle felting tools. Id only tried needle felting once, at a sheep and wool festival, but that little demo provided me with all the knowledge I needed for this project i.e., stabstabstabstabstabstabstab”¦

I arranged the various felted balls in a perfectly random pattern (I know, I have a problem), and used a natural, twine-colored worsted weight yarn to string them. I love the handmade touch they add to my mantle.

About Jenna: Jenna is the designer and crafter behind Small Bird Jewelry. When she’s not making jewelry, she’s probably knitting, sewing, or doing home improvement projects. Get shop updates by following smallbirdshop on Twitter at this link.