DIY Upcycled Birthday Reusable Streamers (Long Festive Garlands)

For Aaron's 5th birthday I made checker board inspired garlands to use for streamers. I made similar streamers for the Candyland inspired party we threw when my husband's parents came. Both sets of streamers added a festive air to our dining room.

I love how excited my kids get about streamers and balloons and declare it a birthday or holiday as soon as they see them. And unlike paper streamers these are easy to save and reuse in the future.

It would be easy to make red, white, and blue for any upcoming 4th of July celebrations, or customize these for any theme you wanted.

Since I used old felted wool coats that were just going to be thrown away, these decorations were free and gave a second life to someone else's discards. They are made very similarly to the Valentine's heart garland that I made in January. There are more pictures of the process in that post.

Homemade Upcycled Reusable Streamers

• Assorted fabrics that won't fray easily (I have used felted wool and fleece)
• Sewing machine (although you could do this by hand with a needle, it would just take longer)
• Thread
• Scissors

1. First I cut out a bunch of shapes free hand. The shapes and sizes vary slightly, but I kind of like it that way. I did make the same number of each fabric.
2. Then I arranged them in the order I wanted to sew them in a big stack. I choose to make a repeating pattern since the shapes and sizes vary some.
3. Then I sewed  them together using a straight stitch on the sewing machine. I started sewing the shape on the top of pile and then just lined the next one up right behind. For pointed shapes to feed into the machine smoothly, it seemed to work best to sew them point first and over lap them slightly with the next shape just under the one being sewn.

Hang them up and throw a party!