Yo-Yo Christmas Garland

I love these little cute circles of fabric. I have never even made one until this project, but I have coveted them from afar forever. I was inspired by someone who put a tutorial for a similar garland on Sew Mama Sew recently – I knew I had to make my own and offer it to you!

I’m in the full swing of making Christmas presents and this will be the perfect gift for my dear friend who loves anything 50’s. I really don’t know if they originated in that era but I know my grandmother made a lot of them during that time. Potholders, quilt and little ornaments with varying sizes of them. So here is me, paying homage to the crafters of era’s past with another fun tutorial from Bee Wise Bags.
Step One: Make circle templates with lightweight cardboard. I used a compass to draw the three different sizes but remember over here at Bee Wise Bags we are all about innovation and resourcefulness so you could also just use a cereal bowl, a ramekin and a drinking glass to get three sizes. (winky face – winky face)
Step Two: Use the templates to mark and cut out fabric circles on the fabrics that you choose. I made 120 different sized circles to make about a 5 foot garland. This took about 6-7 hours to complete the whole project. Of course I did it in spurts over the week.

Step Three: Hand sew in a loose running stitch all the way around the circles. Only fold the edge over about 1/8” as you sew.

Step Four: Pull the threads on the needle side to gather the fabric. When snug and no gaps are showing tie the two ends together securely. I leave a long tail on the thread to make this possible, then trim it after I have done a square knot. The ket to a square knot is to make sure the top threads always come over the top to tie the knot. Flatten the fabric and make sure the gathers are even. (yes I am that OCD)

Step Five: Make a lot of them and just admire their cuteness!!

Step Six: Choose some embellishments like… mmm… lets see, oh my absolute favorite thing in the whole world – BUTTONS!!!

Step Seven: Finish up by sewing them all together. I arranged them in an order and shifted them around until I got them spaced the way I wanted. I stacked some and added buttons to some and kept alternating the sizes as I went. I used a small stitch at each side to connect them, then ran my thread and needle through the center to the exact opposite side and kept going until I needed a new length of thread.

Viola! The cutest garland ever made!!

Note: I did try to sew these on the machine with a basting stitch, although it was faster and possible, you could see the threads in the gathers and the thread easily broke if tugged on too hard to make the gathers really tight.