This wool circle garland is so easy to make, it can be done in mere minutes by just about anyone. Simple enough for beginners, all you need is a sewing machine and some wool or felt fabric. They’re perfect for decorating for Christmas, Easter, birthday parties, baby showers, or any celebration you want to add a personal touch to. Making your own home decorations was never easier or cuter than with this simple wool circle garland!
You can watch along with our YouTube tutorial right here to see just how quick and easy this project is!
Before you begin, you’ll need your wool or felt fabric. To save a whole lot of time and to simplify this project even more, we’ll be using these pre-cut wool circles with colours designed by Sue Spargo.
You can purchase your favourite colours of pre-cut wool circles in a shop near you, or online here: https://shopwonderfil.com/product/pre-cut-wool-circle-applique-packs/
It comes already cut in a variety colours in perfectly shaped circles. This makes it easy to choose the colours for your project, whether it’s for a baby shower or something to decorate the Christmas tree. They also come in a variety of sizes. For our garland, we’re going to choose these red, green, and yellow circles in the 1 ½” size.
However, if you’re cutting your own circles from a larger piece of wool or felt fabric, an easy way to do it is to fold the fabric and cut out a half circle on the fold. This will help keep your circles looking more even.
If you’d like to purchase your own wool fabric to cut your own shapes from, you can find Sue Spargo’s 100% virgin merino wool in a shop near you, or online here: https://shopwonderfil.com/product-category/woolfabric/wool-packs/
Finally, you’ll want to choose your thread. You can use any regular sewing thread, but to make it a little extra special, consider something that stands out a little bit more. For our top thread, we’ll be using this 20wt rayon twist thread called D-Twist. It has two contrasting colours twisted together.
You can find D-Twist in a store near you, or online here: https://shopwonderfil.com/product-category/d-twist/
In the bobbin, we’ll be using an 80wt thread called DecoBob™ to balance out the heavier top thread.
You can find the perfect bobbin for your machine with our DecoBob™ prewound bobbins! You can find them in a store near you, or on our online shop here: https://shopwonderfil.com/pre-wound-bobbins/
Once your machine is threaded and all your fabric circles are ready to go, the last thing you’ll need to choose is the stitch on your machine. If you have a basic machine with only a simple straight stitch, that will work just fine. But to add something a little more fun to your garland, you can also choose one of the built-in decorative stitches on your machine.
If you can’t decide on your favourite decorative stitch, test out a few on a scrap of fabric so you can look at them
Pick a stitch that isn’t too dense to accommodate the thicker thread. Position your first garland circle so the stitch starts at the far edge and sew to the next edge.
Before you sew off the edge, get your next circle ready so that the stitch continues onto the new circle.
Make sure you already have an idea of what order you want your circles in based on size or colour so as not to sew in the wrong circle.
Continue this way for as long as you want your garland to be!
If you find that your wool circles aren’t quite making it under the foot of the machine and bunching up as a result, here’s a quick sewing tip.
Stop stitching just before the edge of the wool circle. Leave the needle in a down position in the fabric and lift the presser foot.
Smooth out the next wool circle and slide it under the presser foot before lowering it again. Continue stitching!
To finish, simply sew to the edge of the last circle and snip the thread. That’s actually all there is to it! If you use pre-cut circles, you can get this project finished in less than half the time. And if you’re cutting your own fabric, why not try cutting some different shapes to add just a bit more of a decorative touch to your DIY decoration.
The best part about this project is that if you’ve cut your own fabric circles out of wool fabric, you can make a another string of garland out of the scraps! We found this super simple, and super quick tutorial for you to follow along with: https://spotofteadesigns.com/diy-felt-scrap-fall-garland/
Another way to jazz up this project is by adding some hand embroidery to the circles! And, if you have made your garland long enough, you can have a stitching circle with your family, a friend, or your pet this holiday season.
If you don’t have a sewing machine but you’re itching to make this adorable decoration, you can do it by hand with some bold stitches! Check out this awesome project that’s super similar done with big stitches: https://pamgarrison.typepad.com/pamgarrison/2009/10/im-falling-for-felt.html
If you’d like to do this by hand, we recommend using our #8 Elegnaza™ Egyptian perle cotton thread, it’s bold and beautiful and will add the perfect look to your hand made garland. You can find Eleganza™ in a shop near you, or online here: https://shopwonderfil.com/product-category/eleganza/
And if you’d preffer an even bolder look, you can order #5 and #3 weight Eleganza™ perle cotton by Sue Spargo here: https://www.suespargo.com/store.php?cat=90
We hope you can enjoy making this easy garland for yourself! If you make these charming decorations you can tag us on Instagram using the hashtag #wonderfil, and we might just share it to inspire others! You can find these threads and more in a shop near you, or on our online shop by visiting www.shopwonderfil.com. You can also sign up for our free newsletter to receive more educational sewing tips, tutorials, and free patterns. Register by clicking here! We’ll see you again next time!