A Felt Leaf Garland Tutorial : :

Fall is the perfect time to get out and get creative by doing nature-inspired art projects with your children. Today's project is all about using the natural beauty in the colored leaves of this season to create and inspire an art project for the kids and you to do, together!



What you'll need : :

• A variety of wool blend felt pieces in Fall colors
• A variety of Fall leaves for color and shape inspiration
• Card Stock for making the leaf shape templates
• Markers
• Glue Stick
• Scissors
• Double Folded Bias Tape
• Sewing Machine
• Thread 
• Pins

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Gathering Leaves and Inspiration : :

While most of the leaves around the house are still green, we were able to find all that we needed to guide us in our color choices and leaf shapes for this project.



1. Trace a variety of the leaves onto a heavy paper such as card stock, and cut those out to make the leaf pattern templates 2. Trace the leaf templates onto the felt (this is the perfect job for kiddos) 3. Cut out the felt leaf shapes (This might be a job just for the adults, depending on how old, and handy with scissors, the children are.)



4. Keep tracing those leaves. I left the more simple shapes for my youngest. They each ended up picking a favorite 5. Using just a little bit of glue, have your little one attach the cut out leaf to another piece of felt of a different color 6. Cut away the felt again, until you have have a double-sided leaf



7. Continue until you have a nice variety of shapes and colors. Seventeen was the perfect amount of leaves for a standard package of double sided bias tape. You can use less or more depending on how full you want your garland to be.



8. Now it's time to sew! I let the kids help with adding a simple, straight stitch to a few of the leaves (pic 1), then I showed them how to do both a straight stitch up the center with stitches coming out from that center line (pic 2), and a few with free motion quilting (pic 3).



Continue until you've added the stitching to each of the felt leaves.



Assembling The Garland : : 



9. Create a loop at the end and pin, this is for hanging the garland 10. About every 2 1/2" or so, open the double-sided bias tape and insert a leaf 11. close bias tape and pin leaf in place



12. Continue repeating this step until all the leaves are pinned to the bias tape, alternating leaf colors and shapes, spacing them out evening.



13. Begin sewing with a thread that matches the bias tape color, starting at the loop, back-stitching when you begin 14. Make your way down the bias tape, removing pins as you go, keeping your seam close to the edge. Make sure to catch the leaf end with your needle 15. Finish by back-stitching at the end loop



You're finished!  

Wishing a wonderful Fall Season to all!!! 

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