Kid-Friendly Project: How to Make a Fabric Garland

*Updated September 2025

If you’re looking for a visual way to show your kids how many days left until Christmas, a fabric chain garland is a great option. It’s fast, kid-friendly, no-sew and uses up any stray 8″ test swatches you might have lying around. Ready to learn how to make a fabric garland and get started on this down-to-the-wire Christmas decoration project? Let’s do it!

Materials Needed

• An even number of 8″ fabric swatches on Petal Signature Cotton® (explore Christmas designs here or scroll to the bottom for more holiday designs)
  • For this tutorial, I used 10 swatches of Bora‘s “The Bunny Band” collection printed onto basic combed cotton, which produced a 7-1/2′ long chain.
• Double-sided lightweight fusible web (I used Lite Steam-a-Seam 2.)
• As many binder clips, clothespins or Clover wonder clips as you can find
• Fabric glue
• Scissors
• Rotary cutter, cutting mat and clear acrylic ruler (or just use your scissors and a ruler)

Step 1. Trim off the unprinted white areas of the 8″ swatches and press them

The links of this fabric chain will have printed fabric on both sides so decide now how you’ll pair the prints up. We paired different colors together so there would be some contrast between inside and outside fabrics, but you could certainly opt to pair them in a more matchy way.

Step 2. Unroll the double-sided fusible web and peel back the first layer of paper backing  

There should be two paper backing layers. Tile the five 8″ swatches you want to use as side one of the chain tops side by side in a row and print side up, with no space left between them.

The fusible product we used is pressure sensitive, meaning that we could lightly stick the fabric squares into place and reposition them as needed before fusing them permanently with the iron.

Once these first five swatches are laid out in a line, press them with an iron as directed on the product instructions to adhere the fusible web to the wrong side of the swatch row. Trim the excess fusible web and paper backing from the swatch row. Check to be sure that the fusible web is adhered to all parts of the swatch row. Re-iron areas that seem too loosely adhered. Flip the swatch row over now and carefully peel away the second layer of paper backing from the wrong side. Be sure not to peel up the fusible stuff, too!

Step 3. Tile the second set of five swatches on top of the first set with wrong sides together, aligning all edges 

Press again to adhere the fusible web to the back of the second set of swatches and to fuse the two sets of swatches together.  Here’s where a press cloth may come in handy since you may have stray smidges of fusible web sticking out here and there that will gunk up your iron if it makes contact.

Once this second row is fused to the first, you can separate the five sets of swatches from each other. Just gently pull them apart; no need to cut yet. You’ll have five 8″ squares with print on both sides.

If you see any stray bits of fusible web sticking out from the sides, trim those off.

Again, check to see if there are any areas that seem loosely adhered and re-iron them if necessary.

Step 4. Cut each 8″ square into eight 1″ strips  

The fastest way to do this is with an acryclic ruler and rotary cutter, and you can stack them into sets of two to go even faster. You’ll end up with a pile of 40 double-sided fabric strips.

Step 5. Turn the strips into chain links

Lay down some newspaper to catch glue drips and have the fabric strips, glue and binder clips (or clothespins or Clover wonder clips) ready. Lay a thin line of glue across one end of the first fabric strip, about 1/4″ from the edge.

Overlap the other end of the strip to form a circle and clip it to hold it together while the glue dries.

Add more links in this manner to build a chain, clipping each link to hold the ends in place while the glue dries. Don’t forget to teach the little ones how to make a fabric garland for a fun new holiday tradition!

If you run out of clips while making links like we did, just let the first length dry for 20-30 minutes, then remove the clips and keep going with the next length of chain.

Step 6. When everything is dry, remove all the clips and hang the chain

Admire your handiwork — this year and in all the years to come!

You’ve just tackled how to make a fabric garland using custom fabric. Make sure you and the kids pat yourselves on the back! This chain garland is sure to spread the festive holiday cheer, no matter what you celebrate. Be sure to share your creation with your world and ours by tagging @spoonflower on your social media channels.

Ready to get started on this DIY? Shop the World’s Largest Textile Design Library below or click here for Christmas designs, Hannukah designs and Kwanzaa designs. Don’t see your holiday here? Try searching for it in the search bar at spoonflower.com!