DIY burlap garland for the mantel

It was time to freshen up the mantel a bit for spring. I had some oversize wine bottles I bummed off my in-laws that I wanted to use. I liked the shape and size of them. I found some floral stems for $2.50 apiece at Michaels, and bought six {three for each bottle}. I put the stem-filled bottles up on the mantel, but it was missing a certain “je ne sais quoi…”

…So then I made a burlap garland. Actually, then I began intently searching Pinterest for some inspiration until I came across this tutorial at A to Zebra Celebrations. I decided to give it a try. I followed the instructions fairly closely but improvised a bit. Since I already had the twine and bought the burlap at Joanne’s with a coupon, the whole project cost under $5 and only took about ten minutes to complete. Well, technically it cost $20 if you count the $15 I spent on the floral stems. {Scroll to bottom for tutorial}

Blake said it looked like a bunch of bath puffs strung together, but I like it anyway. He’s just jealous of my mad skills.

After I finished the garland, I hung it on the mantel, only to decide the bottles looked a bit too plain. I wrapped some jute twine around the necks of the bottles to add some more natural texture.

I’ve been wanting to change up the mirror over the mantel. Right now it is a mirror I found at Ross for under $40, but I would like to replace it with a large round mirror. The living room is full of square/rectangular shapes and lines. A round mirror would soften things up. We also are going to add some more molding to the mantel to spruce it up a bit. It’s a work in progress!

Burlap Garland Tutorial

Supplies:

***For a 5 foot garland

• ~45 feet of 6″ wide burlap garland {I went through one and a half 30 foot rolls. I bought it in the floral section of the craft store, but you can find it here at Amazon as well}
• jute twine
• tapestry needle {I used size 16}
• scissors

Instructions

• Measure your jute twine to the length you want your garland to be. Be sure to leave enough on the ends for hanging purposes.
• Thread your tapestry needle with the twine, only pull about 2 inches or so through the eye of the needle. Tie a fairly large knot in the end of the twine where you want the burlap garland to begin{the end not threaded through the needle}. I left about 6 inches excess from the end of the twine to the knot to allow some room to hang the garland.
• Start making large basic stitches through the center of the strip of the burlap {beginning at the end of the burlap}. After every five or so stitches, gently “scrunch” the burlap down the twine.

• Continue stitching and scrunching until you reach your desired length. As I got more fabric on the twine, I just held it vertically to let the fabric “settle” instead of scrunching it. You can make the burlap as loose or as tight as you wish.

• When you are done, tie a knot in the twine to hold the burlap in place. Remember to leave enough excess on the twine to hang the garland {I left about 6″ at each end}. You can kind of rotate the burlap ruffles a bit and “primp” it to make it more pretty once it’s hung.

*Update: I also used this same burlap to make a wreath. Happy crafting!