Valentine’s Day Rag Garland

On one of my recent trips to Michaels, I spied an adorable Valentine’s Day garland that would have looked perfect on the fireplace mantle in our living room. I picked it up only to realize that they wanted $25 for the silly thing. I played around with it for a minute and realized how incredibly simple it would be to make one of my own.

This past weekend, I stopped by Jo-Ann to pick up a few simple supplies to get this project started.

I chose 1/4 yard of four different cotton prints, 2 1/2 yards of upholstery cording, and some fun little heart decorations.

My cost {with a 20% total purchase coupon} was just under $10.

Note: Each 1/4 yard piece of fabric is 45″ wide, and 9″ long. I started out with my first print, and placed the width of the fabric along a cutting table ruler.

Make a cut in the fabric every 1″ so that you end up with a long fringed piece like the one above. Then repeat with each of your remaining 3 prints.

Start tearing. You’ll want to tear of the selvages on each piece of fabric {the piece on each end with the white border, or where the fabric was cut from the bolt} first. Then rip each remaining strip the full length of the fabric. You should end up with 43-44 strips of fabric, that are 9″ each.

My lovely basket full of fabric strips!

Next, you’ll take your length of cording and start tying each strip of fabric on. I just made a simple knot, but you could also fold the fabric in half and pull the two ends through the loop around the cord. Whichever way you prefer will work!

As you add strips, you’ll want to push them together so that you can’t see the cording underneath, and you have a nice fringe. This is what will make your garland look nice and full once you’re finished.

Once you’ve tied all of your strips on you can either leave it as is, or add a little bit of embellishment. I opted for these cute glitter heart decorations. The center heart is on a post, so that it spins and lets it look a little more three-dimensional once it’s hanging up.

The only thing I wanted to change was the silver thread they used for the hanger. I didn’t want it to stand out once it was tied into all of the red and pink fabric. I snipped off each silver thread and added a short piece of red crochet thread instead.

Choose where you want your embellishments to go and push the knots apart a little bit so that the cord is exposed. Then simply tie your heart in place and push the fabric back together.

So incredibly simple to make. I want to say that the entire project took me just under two hours to complete. A little longer if you have distractions from little ones.  :)

Mine is now hanging over my fireplace at home – and I love how it just adds a little bit of color and spunk to my otherwise boring mantle!

I’ve already picked up fabric to make a St. Patrick’s Day version, and I think a pastel Easter/Spring version will be in the works very shortly as well. With something so simple, why not?

Have fun making your own!