Get your garland on! (tutorial)

Hi, it's Nancy here today with a tutorial from some sweet holiday garland. These simple shapes sew up quickly, allowing you to add a festive flair to your mantel in just a couple hours! And it uses a couple of my favorite holiday symbols!

When I saw the texture of Marblehead, I thought it looked just like a gingerbread cookie. Add in some refreshing peppermint candies, and this garland is ready to go letting you decorate with some of the season's favorite flavors!

Materials:

1/4 yard gingerbread-colored Marblehead

1/4 yard red Marblehead

1/4 yard white solid

Batting

Machine quilting safety pins

Fabric marking pen

Fusible web

White rick rack

16 black buttons

3 white buttons

Black and white embroidery floss and large needle

Miniature clothespins

Red/white braided twine

Click to download the pdf of the gingerbread and peppermint template pieces. 

Cut the gingerbread Marblehead into two 9" x 21" pieces. Cut a 9" x 21" piece of batting. Layer one gingerbread Marblehead right side down, the batting, and the second gingerbread Marblehead right side up. Pin layers together. 

Print out the gingerbread man template (find it here) and cut out. Trace four gingerbread shapes onto the quilt sandwich.

Stitch on the drawn gingerbread man lines.

Cut out each gingerbread man approximately 1/4" past the stitched line.

Lay the white rick rack along the gingerbread arm and stitch down the middle with matching thread. Trim past the edge of the arm. Repeat on the other arm and both legs.

Trim rick rack pieces so they follow the shape of the gingerbread limbs.

Using 3 strands of embroidery floss, stitch on buttons for the eyes and two buttons on the belly. Pass needle through button, through gingerbread man, back through gingerbread man, and back through button. Then tie a double knot and trim the ends. Make four gingerbread men.

Find the peppermint candy templates here. Cut out the red swirl shape and trace 18 onto the paper side of fusible web. Fuse to the wrong side of the red fabric and cut out each swirl on the drawn line. 

Cut out six 6" squares from the white solid and three 6" batting squares. Trace the circle shape onto solid white square using a fabric marking pen. Mark the center of the circle as well. Peel the paper off the back of the red swirls and position six on the white circle, spread out equally with the points touching the center mark. (Don't worry if the points don't match up exactly; they'll be covered by a button!) Press to fuse. 

Sandwich a batting square between a candy square and a solid white square; pin to baste. Stitch approximately 1/4" inside the marked circle line.

Cut out on the marked line (this is different than for the gingerbread men!). Using 3 strands of white embroidery floss, add a white button to the center of the peppermint candy piece. Make 3 candy pieces.

Use tiny clothespins to hang four gingerbread men alternating with three peppermint candies along a length of red/white braided twine. Hang on your mantel!

Thanks Nancy! To go along with Nancy's tutorial, we're giving away a bundle of Marblehead fat quarters. Leave a comment below telling us your favorite flavor of Christmas for a chance to win! This giveaway is open through Sunday, December 22nd at 11:59 EST.