Felt Valentine Garland

I love the color red!  Any splash of red can brighten my day.  So of course, Valentine’s decor is a must.  I created this felt garland in only about an hour using Heat N Bond Lite and Heat N Bond Ultrahold adhesives.

Supplies:  Heat N Bond Lite Adhesive, Heat N Bond Ultrahold Hem Tape, Heat N Bond Ultrahold Adhesive, Felt, Patterned Fabric, Ribbon

1. Cut out felt hearts.  Mine are about 4.5 x 4.5 inches and I have 10 of them..  I just hand cut mine from a template.

2. Cut a 2 – 8 x 11 rectangles of Heat N Bond Lite.  Iron onto 2 different patterned fabrics.  Trim fabric close to the edge of the Heat N Bond Lite.

3. This step is specific to those who have a digital craft cutter.  If you don’t have a digital craft cutter you can always create your smaller fabric hearts with a manual die cutter or even hand cutting.  These hearts are smaller than the felt hearts. They should layer with a nice felt border.  Peel off the backing on the Heat N Bond Lite/Fabric.  Place onto a cutting mat designed for thick mediums.  Run through the digital craft cutter as you would a thick paper.  I was able to cut 6 fabric hearts per sheet.  In a few places I had to trim some remaining threads that didn’t cut but overall this process works just like paper.  Tip: Use an old, used cutting mat.  If the cutting mat adhesive is new and strong it may pull off the Heat N Bond Lite from the fabric.

4. Iron on the fabric hearts onto the larger felt hearts.  Sew along the edge of the fabric hearts.

5. Next we make 6 flowers out of gathered ribbon.  The ribbons I used were about 1/2″ to 7/8″ wide, unwired, and about 6-8″ long.  The quickest way to gather the ribbon to make the flowers is to machine baste stitch along the edge of the ribbon.  Set your sewing machine to make about 6 stitches per inch.  Don’t back-stitch at either end and leave long thread tails on both ends.  Then pull on thread to gather up the ribbon.  It will naturally begin to form a circle shape.  Trim any extra ribbon and form into a flower shape.  Punch or cut a circle of Heat N Bond Ultrahold; it should be a circle slightly smaller than your flower shape.  My circles were 1 1/4″ diameter.  Flip your flower so the wrong side is up, create the final shape adjustments and iron the Ultrahold circle onto the back of the flower.

6. To make the little leaves, I ironed a circle of Ultrahold onto the felt and then hand cut a small leaf.

7. Arrange the flowers and leaves onto a felt heart.  Iron in place.

8. Measure the distance across the top of the hearts.  Mine were about 4.5″ wide.  Cut the Heat N Bond Ultrahold Hem Tape slightly narrower than your heart.  My hem tape pieces were 4″.  Cut one piece of  hem tape for every heart.

9. Arrange your hearts in the correct order and flip over.  Start with the heart that will be in the middle of the garland.  Place a piece of hem tape across the top of the felt heart backside, then place your ribbon string on top of the hem tape.  Iron all 3 pieces together at one time.  Space the next heart 1/2″ from the first one and iron onto the ribbon using the hem tape.  Repeat the process until all the hearts are attached to the garland.