Fall Decorating with a Hand-Stitched Felt Leaf Garland

Create your own beautiful felt leaf garland to add a touch of autumnal charm to your home. This DIY project is simple, fun, and perfect for adding a cozy fall decorating touch to any room. When summer ends, but it doesn’t feel quite like the Halloween decor or pumpkins should go up yet, decorating with fall leaves and similar themes is a great way to bring in some autumn home decor. Felt is such a great material to craft with because it’s so versatile and has such warmth. By using felt from the craft store, you can do a little crafting and create a pretty Hand-Stitched Felt Leaf Garland for around $20 with our leaf template and step by step tutorial.

A wooden fireplace mantel with three deer figurines and oak leaf decorations. A circular framed artwork hangs above the mantel. A garland with beads and felt leaves is draped across the mantel from Jenniferrizzo.cm

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Several sheets of brown, gray, and beige felt are spread out on a wooden surface from Jenniferrizzo.com

Supplies To Create Your Felt Fall Leaf Garland

Embroidery thread of various colors and needle

Felt sheets in choice of colors (we went with neutral colors)

Scissors

Tacky felt glue or hot glue gun

Pencil or marker for tracing

Trace And Cut Out Your Leaf Shapes

Print out our oak leaf template below to the size you would like each leaf, and cut it out of the paper. Use those oak leaf templates to trace sound the shape onto the felt with a pencil or marker. Cut out each felt leaf with scissors. We were able to get 2 leaves out of each piece of felt.

Close-up of a person’s hands sewing a piece of white felt in the shape of an animal using a needle and thread. The workspace has additional felt pieces and the name "Jennifer Rizzo" in the corner.

Begin Stitching Down the Center Of The First Leaf

After laying out what order you would like your leaves to be in, using a an embroidery needle and doubled up embroidery floss (color of choice), being stitching down the center of the first leaf. We used a simple and basic running stitch. Hand-stitch down the entire length of the first leaf. When you reach the end of the first leaf, add a second leaf so there is some overlap, and stitch over it until the end.

Hands stitching felt leaves together on a wooden surface from Jenniferrizzo.com

Begin Stitching the Second Leaf Down the Middle of Your Fall Leaf Garland

At this point, we did an embroidery thread change with a different leaf color, making sure we went through first leaf so they were attached in another place. You’ll want to do this at the top of each leaf whether there is a color change or not. If you do a color change or your thread runs out make sure to knot the end of the thread.

A hand sewing leaf-shaped felt pieces together with a needle and thread. A pair of black-handled yellow scissors lies beside the project on a wooden surface.

Continue Stitching And Joining The Felt Leaves Together

This will begin creating layers of your leaves together. We made ours as long as our faux fireplace mantel which was about 20 leaves. When you add the last leaf, make sure to go back and stitch a loop on the back of the first, middle and last leaf to hang it from the back.

Hands are seen applying glue to felt fabric pieces shaped like leaves using a bottle of felt glue.

Glue Any Loose Felt Leaf Parts Together with Felt Glue

Using Felt Glue or Hot Glue, use a dot of glue to glue any loose parts together so the rustic garland with hold together when hung up. Once the glue is dry you are ready to hang you fall garland! How great would this also look as a fall wreath like this paper and twig wreath made with paper leaves?

A cozy living room with a brown sofa, a wooden coffee table, and a decorated mantlepiece featuring plant foliage, animal figurines, and artwork. The walls are dark green and the rug is white at Jenniferrizzo.com

Decorate With Your Fall Felt Garland

We paired our garland with a string garland made of wooden beads for a fun look. It’s such a simple project, but so pretty. You could make a larger one into a table runner if you were feeling ambitious! Over our faux mantel we decorating it with a collection of vintage wooden antelopes and a really cool MCM lithograph. It really has a warm and cozy fall vibe. The pillowcovers are from Amazon. They look pink in the picture but are tan and blue in person.

A cozy living room features a leather couch with a patterned pillow, a wooden fireplace mantle adorned with decor including deer figurines, and a dark wall with a hanging macrame and plant above.

Little things can be so impactful with decorating for fall! With any project like this make sure to keep it out of reach of kids or pets and away from heat or flame.

A black-painted wall with a mantel holding deer figurines and a leaf garland. Above the mantel, there is a framed nature print, and to the right, a painting. A potted plant is on the floor.

Enjoy your fall decorating! If you love this project, make sure to pin it to Pinterest, and if you make it please share it one social media, we would love to see how it looks in your home! Make sure to grab the template below to trace your leaves with!