How to DIY a giant triangle garland... it's THAT garland! Finally, instructions I can manage- and I like the options to space out the triangles.

Can I just tell you that we made SO much of this giant triangle garland, it’s insane! We had an assembly line going and made enough to deck out a conference. Like every single room was draped in the stuff and every single balloon had a tail of it at this conference. And that conference was last October. Have you been catching on that I am holding out on you? Last year, being pregnant, I kept making things and just didn’t have it in me to sit down at the computer and write about it. I’m excited to finally be sharing some of these photos I’ve been holding on to. I did share the photobooth from that conference though!

Let me be clear, I didn’t ‘invent’ this garland. This style of garland is all over Pinterest and Etsy. That’s why we decided to make it. I love the simple look and when I saw it, I knew I could use the same technique that I’d used to make the vintage storybook garland I’d made for my nephew’s baby shower (back in 2012). I hunted and hunted for the DIY instructions to source for you guys and I did manage to find them over at Design Love Fest, but the actual page isn’t there anymore, although you can find it in the archives (currently right here).

So today, I just really want to give you some tips on sewing paper, and especially on SPACING those triangles. I really love the look of them spaced out instead of overlapped. These were about 3.5″ triangles, so pretty big by spacing them out and hanging them from balloons and slightly away from walls or curtains, they could spin around and looked so dreamy! When I had done the vintage book garland (I did rectangles), we hung it around a door and the part that hung down twirled all day as people walked by. I love that. Taping string to the back of paper just doesn’t work the same.

And as much as I thought it was pretty simple, having made so much of this with other crafty ladies- I realized I’d just assumed everyone had tried sewing paper before. Well, I guess you haven’t. And you could maybe use some of these tips!

Ready for the tips? Start by setting up your sewing machine. We chose to use a black thread, I like that it’s noticeable and since we had some black triangles, it still coordinated. Set up your sewing machine with your thread and set it to a straight, long stitch. On my machine that means setting it to a 3, but I’m sure that will be different on yours. You’ll also want to loosen the tension on your machine (the dial above the needle) so it doesn’t destroy the paper. The thicker the paper, the more tension you can have.

When you’re ready to start sewing, stack all your triangles beside you. This becomes a production line and goes really quickly. Place the needle into the first piece of paper and start sewing slowly. We found the best way to do this was have a slow steady speed instead of speeding up and slowing down.

Use one hand to guide the triangle through in a straight line and the other hand to pull the triangle through as the needle walks off of the triangle. Pull it through by gripping the stitch in the triangle tightly (not just the paper). If you keep sewing but don’t pull on the string/ triangle, you won’t get that nice gap between the triangles and your thread will probably knot. Go slow if you’re nervous about it. Then, the hand that you’d been guiding the triangle through with from the front can grab another piece and place it in all without stopping the machine from that nice slow speed.

I feel kind of silly writing about this, but I’ve been told that these tips are helpful! I hope that you’ll find them useful if you make a garland of your own sometime soon! If you DO, I would so love to see it. Share it to my Facebook page or tag me on Instagram @colleenpastoor!

PS. I took these photos in October as well, and can’t get over how much I feel like my lettering has improved since! Practice makes better, right?!