This year create some fantastic and festive holiday and/or party decorations using just fleece! You can certainly upcycle a garment or blanket, use scraps from a fleece sewing project, or choose to buy some fleece to make these oh so simple fleece decorations! And, since this project was originall created with kids in mind, any one old enough to use a ruler and mark dimensions can certainly join in the fun.
And of course, don't be afraid to customize this project with some added details like buttons, pom poms, embroidery, crocheted elements, beads, you name it!
And while you're at it, why not whip up a bunch, as these garlands would make great homemade holiday gifts as well, don't you think? (Not to mention that they'd be the perfect little surprise to send in the mail to loved ones!) So gather your supplies and follow my step by step tutorial below, and don't forget to let me know how it goes!
You'll Need:
- fleece, several colors (this project can also be done using felt)
- ribbon - only necessary if you don’t enough fleece long enoughmasking tape
- a ruler or tape measure
- a marker
The banners I‘ve shown you here are made by simply cutting the desired shapes from fleece, cutting some slits at the top of the shapes and threading them onto a fleece chord or length of ribbon. For the best results, you’ll want to make your shapes equally sized, which requires a little bit of measuring for the sake of precision, but it’s well worth the extra effort.
To make the fleece cord: Cut long pieces of fleece that are roughly 1/3 to 1/2” inches high, and as long as your fleece allows. To make longer fleece chord simply staple or glue several lengths together, and hide the join behind one of the shapes.
To make fleece triangles that are 3” wide at the top and 4” high, follow the steps below:
Step 1: Apply strips of masking tape to the piece of fleece you’ll be using, such that the masking tape covers an area that is 4” high. Using a ruler, make marks on the masking tape that are 1 1/2” inches apart.
Step 2: Assuming that the left hand edge is the first mark, starting at the third mark, draw lines from the bottom to the top of the masking tape strip on every other mark. Now you can form the triangles by drawing diagonal lines (seen in red) from the top of the vertical lines down to the marks at the bottom edge. While you may see three triangles in this photo, there are actually five complete triangles, see them?
Step 3: Now it’s time to make guide for cutting the slits in our triangles. Draw two parallel lines, about 1/2” apart across the top of the triagles, and then make marks between these lines as a cutting guide. I made the marks 3/4” from the vertical lines. Now do the same thing on the bottom edge of your tape to make slit guides for those triangles that are upside down.
Step 4: Using the red lines as cutting guides, carefully cut out your triangles.
Step 5: To cut the slits, fold the portion where you’ve marked the two parallel lines in half as seen in the photo, and carefully cut your slits by cutting on the fold. I’ve added some red arrows to make it clear where you’ll need to make the cuts.
Step 6: Carefully remove the masking tape from your shapes. Now thread your fleece chord or ribbon through the slits, from back to front, and arrange the triangles on the ribbon.
To make the decorative blue ties: Simply cut lengths of fleece chord and tie them around your fleece chord by making a loop, wrapping the loop around the chord, and bringing the ends through the loop, and pulling to form a knot.
To make the flag shapes: mark off rectangles on a strip of masking tape, as well as the triangular portion that you’ll remove from the bottom of the rectangle to make the flag shape. Make slits according to the directions used here for making slits in the triangles.
Use your own imagination to come up with all kinds of fun fleece banners from now on you’ll hopefully see the wonderful potential for cozy crafting in every piece of fleece that crosses your path!
