Stunning.: Fabric Garlard Tutorial

I was asked to create a display around a piece in my thesis fashion line in the building where my apparel classes are held. I wanted to create a Spring Party Atmosphere so I created a sketch of what I was hoping to achieve:

I was hoping for a garland of some sort and large tissue paper "puff ball" flowers to create a lovely springtime feeling.

This is how it turned out! Making the garland and the "puffs" was super fun - although transporting them in the rain was not such a fun thing... :D

Today I want to teach you how to make your own "fabric scrap" garland:

Materials:

Scrap/Leftover Fabric (Focal Fabric)

Other Leftover/Scrap Fabric (Complementary Fabric) This can be tulle, lace, sheer fabrics, or anything else you desire in your garland.

Ribbon The length is your choice, depending on how long you want you end product to be.

Fray Check

Complementary Thread

Scissors

Pins

Safety Pin

I found this to be the most fun part. Take your miscellaneous fabric scraps and work them into desirable shapes. Triangles and rectangles were the easiest to work with for me, as all of my scraps seemed to be large triangles or squares.

Pin the sides of all of your garland pieces in order to prepare them to run through the sewing machine. I pinned on all 4 sides, if there was one side that had a fold, I left 1/4" beneath that to create a space for the ribbon to go through. If there was no fold I sewed a channel along what I wanted to be the top of the garland piece.

The fabric pieces were the easiest to run through the machine, as I didn't have to be very delicate with them. Most of my fabric pieces also were created on a fold and I didn't have to sew along the top and then 1/4" down to create space for the ribbon to be strung through.

Sewing through tulle and lighter weight fabrics was a bit difficult. My best advice: GO SLOW!

Here are all of my fabulous garland pieces of all shapes and sizes. I loved adding the lace and tulle because of the texture it gave to the final product.

I used this Fray Check to prep the ends of the ribbon before I strung the flags, in order to keep the ribbon from shredding.

After the fray check dried I place the safety pin on the end of the ribbon and began to string the flag onto the ribbon in no particular order. At the end of the ribbons I used extra scrap fabric to knot around the ends in order to keep the flags the slipping off. I also through that fabric knots could aid in holding the flags in place if you were having a problem with them all pooling at the lowest point.

Here is my finished display again with a fabulous fabric garland!

This was such a great way to use those little fabric scraps that I just didn't seem to have the heart to part with... Don't kid yourself - you know you have some of those too!

A side view - not a very deep case, but still a fun space to work with.

The hallway has pretty terrible lighting, so it was quite difficult to get a picture that didn't have strange reflections of lights and an exit sign...