An Apple Garland for Fall

You could easily make this a leaf garland for fall, but to me, apple is good for back to school and fall.

This is super easy! You do need to know how to do some basic sewing, but not much.

I started with felt in three colors. Then I found some coordinating patterned fabric for each color.

I hand drew my apple shapes. I wanted them to be individual so I didn’t use a pattern. You could easily do a search for apple and use something if you need a pattern.

Then I did a rough cut around the apples. Make sure to leave over 1/4 inch around your shape.

This part is a little tricky but if you do it right, it saves many steps and is fun. You layer your felt and your fabric. Since I was using my garland in my front window, I wanted it to be double sided. I did rough cuts of the felt and the fabric about 1/2” bigger all the way around, than my apple drawing.

Start with a layer of your felt.

Next is a layer of your patterned fabric facing down.

Another layer of your patterned fabric facing up.

And the top layer is another layer of the felt.

I layered them in a way that you can see the direction of the material, but really I lined them up in the corner.

Then I layered one of my apple drawings on top of the stack.

This is my favorite way to sew with felt. Sewing paper is not good for your needle (and cutting paper isn’t good for your scissors) so remember to change out your needle for *real* sewing.

With a very short stitch length, sew through all the layers using your drawing as your guide.

The paper should pop off almost on it’s own. It may take just a little careful help from you. Take the paper completely off.

Carefully snip just the outside layer of felt - enough so you can get your scissor blade under just the felt layer. (You do not want to cut through all the layers here. That would defeat the whole purpose. )

Carefully cut around the inside of the apple. I left over 1/4 inch from my stitch line. Flip it over and do the cut out the center of the other side too.

Cut through all the layers around the apple shape. Again I left about 1/4 inch from the stitch line.

I cut green leaves out of felt and then brown rectangles out of felt. The brown is actually twice as long as you want your finished stem. I only used one leaf for each apple. I looped the brown rectangle around the top of the apple, with the leaf just under one side. I stitched the bottom of the stem. This stitched both the front and the back of the stem to the apple. I also stitched further to sew the middle of the leaf to the apple.

I threaded ribbon through the loops made from the stems. I rotated the apples so that the leaf faced forward on one and backwards on the other. Again, this was done because I want mine to be double sided.

Voila! You have a freaking adorable garland for the fall. I stitched this together in time for the first of school and will keep it up well into fall.

I hope you love it! I adore it. It was a simple project that I know, even those of you that say you can’t sew – you too could make this. (As long as you can thread your needle.)

Anjeanette