Felt Christmas Lightbulb Garland

Christmas lights have always been my favorite part of the holiday season. All of the colors lighting up the night to welcome in the season. My deep love of Christmas lights comes from something my dad used to do for me when I was a kid.

My childhood bedroom faced the front of the house, which meant I got a front row seat to all of the holiday decorations my parents set up in the front yard. My favorite decorations were the large, blinking lights hung from the eaves of the house. When time came to be tucked into bed, my dad always turned the blinds to face downward so I could fall asleep watching the lights blink. The colorful light would flood my dark room as I tried to predict which light was going to blink next. It was magical.

I've been wanting to do a felt garland of Christmas lightbulbs for a while now, but it has taken time to find style and technique. I didn't want to just cut ovals out of the felt and say, "Look! Lightbulbs!" Thankfully, I finally found the right lightbulb image from MakeLearningFun.com and the rest fell into place.

I think my favorite part of this project is the lightbulbs look like something straight out of A Charlie Brown Christmas.

The best part? This project is sooooooo inexpensive for quite a bit of material. Just wait and see...

Tools
Fabric Scissors
Paper Scissors
Sharp Yarn Needle

1. Print out lightbulb images from MakeLearningFun.com. I printed the page of lightbulbs as a 4" x 6" photo so the lightbulbs would be smaller than the regular printable. This can be easily achieved in your print settings.

Cut out TWO lightbulbs. You will need one full lightbulb an on the second, cut off the top {the socket}. 

2. Using fabric scissors, cut a strips of color felt the length of your lightbulb. Then cut rectangles to fit the width of the lightbulb.

3. Now cut around the lightbulb. Remember, this is felt. It doesn't have to be perfect.

4. Time to do the socket! Same deal - cut a strip of grey felt the width of your socket piece then cut into rectangles. Cut out your final socket shape. These can be tricky because they are small so watch your fingers!

5. Keep cutting until you have all the pieces you need. For my 6 foot garland, I only had to cut one strip of each color, which yielded 6 lightbulbs in each color.

6. Let's put this garland together! Thread your yarn needle with your yarn. I don't precut my yarn for my garlands, just in case I want more length, but it's up to you. Again, mine ended up at 6 feet long.
Stack your grey socket on top of your color lightbulb. Slightly to the right, poke your yarn needle through the backside and pull through...

.... then slightly to the left, poke your needle through the front of your lightbulb...

... pull through and you've strung your lightbulb!!!

7. Repeat until you've strung all the lightbulbs to your heart's desire. Your lightbulbs will be able to slide easily along the yarn. If you'd like to prevent them from sliding, I recommend adding a small dab of glue on the back side over yarn.

9. Hang and enjoy!

Happy Holidays!