Dear Reader, drop whatever you are doing right now and run out and get some felt! (Just please look both ways before you cross the street, we don't need any accidents on account of this project.) You just can't imagine the joy this little wall hanging has brought into our house since it was born early last week. And if you don't celebrate Chanukah, well I'm sure you can think of something creative to put in the window: snowflakes, some bare branches and a few cute birds, a starry night.....The little shapes like the candles and the dreidels are removable and repositionable, thanks to tiny squares of velcro teeth on the back of each shape. Too much fun don't you think?
Hang a few of these together and you're sure to win the prize for cutest holiday decor. So make some of these as gifts and surprise your kids on the first night of Chanukah and you'll have some very happy children, plus you can certainly save them for years to come. It would even be worth loosing just a bit of sleep over this one, in my humble opinion!
You'll Need:
- A piece of light blue felt measuring roughly 24" x 36"
- Two thin wooden craft dowels roughly 26" long
- Felt strips for curtains roughly 30” long each
- Yellow felt for Chanukiah and brown felt for table legs and top of window frame
- Eyelet trim for table cloth:8" piece
- Silver sequin trim, roughly 2 yards
- Silver ribbon for tying curtains
- Fabric glue or hot glue gun used with caution
- Adhesive backed velcro (just the side with the teeth)
- A metal key chain ring for hanging
How To:
STEP 1: Draw a Chanukiah that only has five branches (four plus the shamash in the middle) on a piece of cereal box cardboard. Work on one side only until it’s as good as it can be, and then cut it out. With a felt-tipped marker, trace around your ‘half Chanukiah’ onto a piece of yellow felt. Then flip the cardboard cutout over and trace it again. This is the simplest way to make sure that both sides of your Chanukiah will match. Using sharp scissors, carefully cut out the felt Chanukiah shape.
STEP 2: Glue your Chanukiah to the felt background and decorate with sequin trim. (The sequin trim is what makes the Chanukiah look really great, so it’s worth even a special trip to buy some at your local sewing or craft store!)
Cut a piece of fabric or eyelet trim (the tablecloth) and glue the top edge to the felt background just under the Chanukiah. Cut legs for your table from brown felt, and glue those on too. Glue on a strip of brown felt at the
top of your felt background, this is the top of the window frame.
STEP 3: Make the scalloped edge at the bottom of the felt background by tracing something round, like a small glass salt holder, (shot glass) on the backside of the felt. Start in the middle and then work to the right and then to the left, tracing half circles.
Cut along the line you’ve traced to make a beautiful decorative edge. Fold top of felt background over the first wooden dowel and glue on the back.
STEP 4: Assemble curtains on the second wooden dowel. Fold strips felt over the top of the dowel and affix with glue on the back side. Make finials (the decorative knobs at the ends of the curtain rod) by gluing sets of yellow shapes to the ends of the dowel. Gather the curtains by tying a piece of ribbon or felt around the middle of each one.
STEP 5: Place the curtains on top of the background, and with thin thread, loosely bind the two dowels together at the ends. This holds the curtains to the background, and enables you to open and close the curtains. To display your work of art, sew a metal ring to the back just behind the dowels, or tie a ribbon or long strip of felt to both ends of the dowels and hang.
STEP 6: Here’s the fun part! Decorate your wall hanging with all kinds of felt shapes that you can remove at any time. Simply affix small pieces of adhesive backed velcro (the side with the teeth) to the back of each shape and press onto felt. Cut out candles and flames, or oil cups and flames, dreidels, gelt, latkes, you name it!
Add something new each night of Chanukah as a surprise for the whole family, and enjoy! And please do spread the joy by sharing this project with your friends and family.
