Sewn Paper Garland & Ornaments

I was cruising around craft sites one day and I ran across something that I had never seen or ever imagined to be possible before...sewing paper on a sewing machine.  Of course I had to give it a shot and see if it was really possible.  Low and behold, it worked.  I had a lot of fun experimenting with it and ended up making a very simple garland and dangling ornaments. 

Here is my sheet music garland.

Here is the sheet music dangling ornament.

Being a musician, I typically always test the things out of printed music.  I had my trusty vintage hymnal close by when I began this project.  You can make these out of any type of paper you wish.  Be creative with your paper selection and make something to use for a birthday, baby or bridal shower, of course Christmas and any other holiday.  As you can well imagine, you can do much more intricate things with these sewn paper garlands and ornaments.  I stuck with the basics for this but will definately be trying some variations in the future.

Supplies
Paper of choice
Scissors
Pen
Circle pattern (I just used two different sized lids off of spice bottles)
Sewing machine & thread
Hole punch (if making ornaments

Instructions for Garland

• Cut circles from your paper.  I chose to cut two different sizes for some added interest.

• Begin by having an ample length of thread pulled from both the spool on top and the bobbin.  This will give you something to grab and pull your garland through the machine while sewing. 
• Run one piece of paper through your sewing machine at a time.  You can either choose to sew the pieces end to end (pieces touching) or leave a random sized space in between each piece. 
• To add space between pieces simply sew through one piece completely.  When you get to the end of the piece, continue pressing the pedal on your machine while pulling the sewn portion of your garland through.  This will cause the thread to twist together.  When the desired amount of space is achieved, slide another piece of paper under the presser foot and continue on.

Showing the process of pulling the piece through to add a gap.

• When you have reached the desired length for your garland, run the machine a little further (without adding any paper pieces) to give you thread to hang your piece from.  Both ends can be trimmed back after you decide where and how you will hang your garland.

Instructions For Ornaments

• Follow the same basic sewing instructions as above with the following changes.
• Select your starting (top) paper piece and put a whole in the top using a paper punch.  this will provide a place to hang using either ribbon or an ornament hook.
• Begin sewing right under the punched hole on your first piece.  Continue sewing pieces together as instructed above until you have reached your desired ornament length. 
• Trim threads from the top and bottom.  Your ornament is ready to hang.