Making Polka-Dot Garland (a kinda-sorta tutorial)

For Eli's 1st birthday party I took a stab at making polka-dot garland. Rather than using streamers I thought this would be something fun, different...and reusable! I had everything I needed on-hand so it was cheap, and it was super-super-easy to make! I'm so excited to re-use it for future parties!

Since this was a trial for me, I snapped a few pics during the creation process...

so here we go with my 1st kinda-sorta tutorial!

I came up with 2 kinds of decorations.

1. The short single dot strands (that I hung from doorways)

2. The long double dot garland. (that I stretched across the room & attached to balloons)

How did I do it?

 First I chose 3 colors of felt that I wanted to make my dots with and gathered my supplies..

FELT

CIRCLES TO TRACE - I used 3 different sizes

FABRIC MARKER

SCISSORS

THREAD

 I laid my circle guide onto my felt & traced a bunch of circles with my fabric pen...a fancy circle cutting tool would've been handy, huh?! (boy would I love one of those!)

Then I cut out my circles.
*Moving your fabric as you cut, rather than moving your scissors, makes the edges of your circles much nicer.

The amount of circles you need depends on how close you want your circles to be & how long you want your garland to be.

Here's where I stopped with my pictures.

Next, using my sewing machine, I stitched each felt polka dot from one end to the other. When I reached the end, I continued to let my machine stitch so that they strands of thread would twist together. I did this for approx 3-4 inches and then began stitching another polka dot.

The first few chains of polka dots I made I stitched with brown button thread. The weight & thickness of it was great but the brown looked terrible on my felt. So I went to using regular white thread.

When I make it again, I'll use white (heavy duty) thread.

(or it would definately work to use a heavy string & fabric or hot glue - great option for someone who doesn't want to sew!)

I also started by stitching one dot at a time and didn't like how thin it looked...plus the dot would shift & slide..making the spacing uneven.That's when I decided to double layer the dots. Much better!

I love how it turned out! Hopefully the next time around goes even better since this one was my first.

It was so quick, so easy & definately fun to have up to decorate Eli's 1st birthday party!!

 PaRtY TiMe!!!