The felt chain garland craft that never ends

Let me warn you folks, this is the felt chain garland craft that never ends. Easy. Yes. Time consuming. Beyond comprehension. You see, last year we made some pom pom ornaments. No wait, my mistake, 2 years ago we made pom pom ornaments.

I present exhibit A.

Pom Pom Ornaments

This craft has taken on a life of it’s own on Pinterest. My kids made MORE of them this year. I refused. If you need to know why, go read the post. Then if you try and make it, don’t say you weren’t warned.

Well, like childbirth when you’re supposed to forget the pain of delivery (lies), I decided let’s do another felt craft this year. I had wanted to make a felt chain garland for quite some time and given that it’s a very easy craft, I thought, no problem.

Again, this is the felt chain garland craft that never ends. 

If you’re going to do this, break it up into steps and do the felt cutting on one day and the gluing on another. Or else you will sustain an injury like I did when I made these Felt Christmas cards.

I actually pulled a muscle making these below.

Here is what you need to make the felt chain garland:

• Felt Sheets – they are 9 x 12″ (22.8 x 30.4 cm)
• Glue gun and glue sticks
• Scissors
• Muscle relaxers and possibly wine depending on how late you stay up to make this

Step 1 – Cut up all your felt strips.

I folded the 9 x 12″ felt sheets in half and cut the piece down the middle. Then I cut four strips from each (now) 6″ half piece of felt.

The reason I didn’t do 5 strips was because if you decide to go with thinner strips of felt, they won’t be as sturdy when it holds together. This way it looks stronger and more “rich” for lack of a better word.

These strips are just under 2″ in width and 6″ long.

6 inches. Buddy the Elf’s boss would be proud.

TIP: If you do want narrower felt loops, I recommend thicker felt. Thinner and longer pieces of felt lead to droopy loops on your chain. You do not want this because it looks sloppy and felt can stretch over time.

Step 2 – Glue your felt loops together

Hopefully this is the next day because despite this looking easy, it takes a long time to do Step 1. Especially when you have lots of colors and I don’t know, kids at home.

Get thee a glue gun and begin to glue and link and loop your strips like so.

STEP 3 – Keep going…and going…the end?

Thinking you are done and can rejoice in your craft project you hang it on the mantle to test it out. Then you realize it’s kinda short. Your Elf on the shelf is judging you with disapproval.

So you go back to Michael’s for more felt pieces.

This next part may or may not happen to you.

That’s when you discover they have introduced 2 new felt colors for the year. Suddenly you feel a desperate need to implement these colors within your “already half way” done garland.

Oh yes ladies and gentlemen, I cut up the parts of the garland to insert the turquoise and plum colors into this one.

That means I cut up some already glued strips of different colors to make room and had to re-cut those. Don’t be like me. Buy all your colors at the store or online and do not go back for more temptation.

Still doing this felt chain garland…

This is me at 11 pm on my beat up old paint covered kitchen table (seriously Santa, a new table and chairs, please!!)

But in the end, several glasses of wine and your husband asking “Are you still working on that?” a couple of times later, you get this.

As the mantel pics are just to show you the scope and size as it doesn’t match our mantel this year, I was going to hang it on our IKEA HEMNES unit like this…

…but our older daughter has pretty much confiscated it for her room. And now our younger daughter wants one for her room in different colors.

Moral of the story, don’t show this post to your kids. I alas can’t hide this garland from my own. You’ve been warned.

COST AND SIZING OF FELT SHEETS

P.S. – The sheets of felt are .59 cents (CAN). I used 10 sheets for this for a total cost of $5.90 (not including taxes and the extra pieces I had to cut up).

I used 8 strips of each color to make the garland, and it’s almost 11 feet long.

P.P.S. – That’s the Canadian spelling of favourite. Cinema Light Box was not made for Canadian spelling. Or apostrophes. I need a new font for that one.