Quick Halloween Garland from Project Leftovers

As I was getting supplies together this morning to work on a table runner for Thanksgiving I came across a bowl filled with leftovers from some of my recent Halloween projects. The bowl was filled with small skulls, skeleton hands, and driftwood. The mix looked like a perfect garland waiting to happen. The skulls and hands both came from my Halloween wreath and the driftwood was from my fabric pumpkins.

This cost me zero money since everything I used was scraps and leftovers from other projects. Yay, the best kind of project is one that is off the cuff and I don’t have to buy anything for it!!! 🙂

I cut strips of black burlap from scraps I had leftover from the black cat I made. Also, I ripped strips of unbleached muslin.

Here is a quick tutorial on how to correctly cut burlap.

Find a thread where you want to cut your strip.

Pull it completely out of the fabric.

Cut through the “ladder” that was left and you have a perfect piece without all the little threads coming off of it. Please excuse the last few pictures, I don’t know what was happening that they came out so bad.

Also cleaning up all the fuzzies from burlap is easy. It attracts the fuzzies back onto itself  so just dust the area with the burlap and it will be cleaned up easily.

I used a natural cord for the base of the garland. The plastic the skulls are made of isn’t very thick. I was able to pierce through the sides with a heavy yarn needle. If you don’t have one an ice pick or awl would work, just be careful. To see how I aged the skulls check out the Halloween wreath I made here.

I tied the cord around the hands and hot glued it to the back for security.

I did the same to the driftwood pieces. The driftwood looked like bones sort of, but if you wanted to pick up some fake bones from the dollar store or use sticks from outside those would work just as well.

The last thing was going back and tying on all the strips. I then made a loop at each end for stringing up.

I like how some of the hands stick out like they are trying to grab you.

 

 

Not sure I will be leaving this on the wall, I might string this on the front of my candy coffin on Halloween night.

I will be linking up with these parties.