Sewing Pattern
Brussel Sprouts Garland
Love them or loathe them, Brussels sprouts are a Christmas dinner staple! If you can no longer wait to pop one or two on your plate, why not make Carolyn Letten’s felt garland instead? In just six simple steps, you’ll have created a cheery decoration to adorn your mantelpiece or loop around your Christmas tree.
Essentials
- Felt: greens, yellow, red, blue, white, black, beige
- Embroidery thread
- Red and white bakers twine, 1.4m
- Glitter glue
- Silver star trim
- Spotty buttons, 10
- Toy stuffing
1 Download and print the templates, then cut out all of the pieces using different shades of green felt. There are 11 sprouts in total, so cut out four pieces for each of the six plain sprouts (sprout 1), and three pieces for each of the five decorated ones (sprout 2).
2 Place the leaves B, C, D, F and G onto scrap paper. Using the template as a guide, machine-stitch the details all the way around, just in from the edges. Tear the paper away when finished.
3 For the plain sprouts, place leaf B onto A, and sew around the curved edge of B. Push some toy stuffing into it, then stitch across the bottom edge. Arrange leaves C and D on top of B, then glue C to the left of B, and D to the right. Only apply glue across the bottom and part of the sides to give a 3D appearance.
4 Using glue in the same places, stick leaf F to the left of E, and leaf G to the right – they should overlap each other at the bottom. Use two strands of black embroidery thread to hand-sew the eyes. Cut out three red felt hat front pieces and three back ones. Cut three white trims, then glue onto the fronts.
5 Pair up each hat front and back, place the top of the sprout just inside each one, and hand-stitch all the way around, adding a little stuffing as you go. Glue a silver star to each hat. Cut two small pink cheeks and glue as shown. Repeat for the remaining two sprouts, using the crown template.
6 Take the twine and thread ten buttons onto it, leaving a 9cm gap between them. Dab some glue behind each one to keep it in place, and leave to dry. Cut a green felt back for each sprout, trap the twine in between, and glue in place between the buttons. Once dry, add glitter glue to the sprouts.