No Sew Mitten Garland Tutorial

This week - probably like the rest of you! - I'm wrapping up my last-minute Christmas sewing projects. AND a cute little No-Sew project - a fun little mitten garland that was really easy and ended up SO CUTE.

This project was inspired by the Comfort and Joy Mittens Advent Calendar Panel panel from My Mind's Eye* for Riley Blake Designs. It was designed to make little advent calendar mittens.

Since I'm running last minute at this point anyway, I decided to not make the mitten pockets. As a result I didn't use the numbered mittens this time and used the other cute prints. (I did save the numbered prints and hoping to make a numbered pocket advent calendar with them next year. Check back next year for that. 😉 )

For this project I used Heat n Bond (Lightweight because that's what I had on hand, but you could use a heavier weight as well) + some coordinating Comfort and Joy prints for mitten backs. (Or you could just use the numbered side.)

Fuse the mittens to the Heat n Bond and cut them out losely. Peel the paper backing and fuse a bunch at once to a backing print.

Then cut them out with some sharp scissors.

The other supplies I used for this garland are some jute twine and some mini clothespins. These are available at most craft stores. This is a perfect example of coming across something at the craft store and thinking, "Those will be perfect for something. I just don't know what, yet." And here we are!

Once again, you can find the Comfort and Joy Mittens Advent Calendar Panel panel from My Mind's Eye from Lou Lou's Fabric Shop. (Even if you decide you don't have time to make this project this year, grab the panel now as it won't be available after this Christmas!)

A super quick and cute little garland. Easy to customize to a variety of widths and hang in different spaces. I'll move mine somewhere else so I can hang my stockings soon, but it looked cute and festive for the picture on my fireplace mantle.

I have to confess something. As I was working on this project last night and was part way through cutting out my mittens, I started to feel like this was a craft fail. The mittens felt too floppy, I couldn't figure out how to make them into a garland, etc. So I walked away and went to bed. This morning when I woke-up, I remembered the cute little clothespins and had the idea for the jute. Total game changer. Now I love the finished result. The creative process is so interesting, right? Do you ever get to the "this is horrible. What was I thinking?" stage? It happens to me ALL THE TIME. Including this one. Moral of the story. Go to bed and come back with fresh eyes. 😉

One more finish to share. A few posts ago, I shared a teaser of some embroidery projects I'd made with my Baby Lock Destiny II Sewing and Embroidery machine. I LOVE the way they turned out - even better than I'd envisioned in my head.

I did one in a classic Black and Red Buffalo check flannel which is very au courant this season. I love the way the gold embroidery pops. (I bought the Merry and Bright embroidery pattern here. You can find more info on the Red Felt Snowflake pillows, red star quilt block pillow, and Retro-inspired triangle quilt here.)

I also tried a variation on a classic navy and green Blackwatch plaid. And I'm going to say, I'm just as happy with the results on this one. It's pretty much neck and neck competition as to which version I like best. These pillows are going to be gifts for my mom and sisters. In fact, I gave this one to my mom on Saturday night, and then realized I hadn't photographed it yet, so had to take it back, lol. (The realities of being related to a quilting blogger.)

It was fun to try something new with the Embroidery function on my machine. I feel like I still have so much to learn about its capabilities - that's one of my goals for 2018: to make and do more with machine embroidery. I have ideas in my head, I just need to learn more of the technical details to make them happen!

So here's one more success story (and bonus points for it being SUPER EASY. hah.) This year I decided to Gingham all the things. I used my the Riley Blake woven red and white gingham that I LOVE and cut it into strips and tied it where ever I could.