Brendan & Tiffany Sullivan

I’m getting really excited for Christmas. I’ve really been inspired to have a homemade Christmas and to make as many gifts and decorations as possible. As a child, my excitement in waiting for Christmas was always fed by a countdown of some sort. We had Grandpa Leibbrand’s daily countdown with gifts, sometimes there was an advent calendar with chocolates, and I always loved making a paper chains as decorations or with twenty-five links–one for tearing off each day.

As I was reminiscing about the paper chain, I thought about how I could translate it in a more grown-up way and still retain its simplistic charm.

I decided to make a fabric chain garland for our Christmas tree. I picked up a yard of Christmas fabric at Hobby Lobby. Brendan helped me pick out a cheerful red printed with white snowflakes. This is the result of my efforts:

(I’m sure it will look much better on our tree instead of our coat hooks.)

1. Cut fabric into strips of 2.5″ x 8.5″ (I also stiffened my lightweight cotton with interfacing)

2. Sew a 1/4″ seam with right sides together along the long edge of the rectangles.

3. Turn the strips right-side-out

4. Iron the strips with the seam in the center (this way the seam will be on the inside of the links)

5. Tuck one edge of the strip in like a little hem

6. Tuck the opposite end of strip into “hemmed” side and sew

7. Repeat steps 5 and 6 sewing the links of the chain together

****You may either sew the entire chain or make it modifiable as I did:

*I sewed my chain in 7 sections of 9 sewn links. The 10th link is not sewn shut but buttons closed. This way I can always lengthen my chain in the future with more fabric and alternate the pattern (hope that makes sense) or shorten the chain depending on the size of my tree.

*8. Tuck in the edges of the strips and sew

*9. Sew a buttonhole on one end of the strip

*10. On the opposite end of the strip, sew a button

Your chain can now be lengthened!

This project could easily be modified. You could use Velcro or snaps instead of buttons, ribbon instead of fabric, et cetera.

I hope this tutorial made sense. Feel free to ask me questions for clarity.

If anyone decides to do something similar, I’d love to hear/read about it and see pictures. Once I get my Christmas decorations out, I’ll add a picture of the fabric chain garland on the tree.

Love, Tiff

*Edit

I finally got the decorations out and put the garland on our little tabletop tree. It will definitely look better on a big tree. For now I used the garland on the doorway between the living room and the dining room.