DIY Fabric Bat Garland

There is something about a garland that just makes the best party and seasonal decor. They are typically easy to store but they pack a big punch once you drape them out to decorate for an occasion! And they look cute in so many places — on a fireplace mantel, along a stairwell, over a curtain rod, or even draped across the top of a media cabinet.

I’ve actually made several cute holiday garlands here on ETI, like this DIY Anthropologie Inspired Gingerbread Garland, this DIY Felt Leaf Garland, and this Painted Quilt Block Garland. These are fun projects because they are fairly simple to make and they are a great way to repurpose extra cardboard that you accumulate around the house. But I decided to step it up a bit with today’s garland, to create something that felt a little more high quality and will hopefully be able to be used for years to come. So this garland is a little bit more complicated & labor intensive, but have no fear — I have a full step-by-step tutorial below on how I made it.

I was inspired to make this garland by a DIY project that I saw on TikTok recently by @annelourayne who made the cutest reusable birthday foil balloon banner. She just used a gold foil fabric to sew together a Happy Birthday banner to reuse year after year instead of buying new mylar balloons every year. I thought it was the best idea and I totally want to make one! And I realized that I actually had a lot of the same fabric leftover from a previous project. But since I’m in full fall/Halloween mode, I set out to create my own gold foil garland of spooky (but mostly just cute) bats!

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HOW TO MAKE A FABRIC BAT GARLAND

Supplies:

STEP 1: Begin by downloading ETI’s Bat Garland Template (above!) and printing out your paper bat template. Cut out the bat shape. Trace the shape of the bat onto the back of your fabric. You are going to need two for each bat, one of the front side of the template and one of the back side of the template. Carefully cut out the bat shapes with your scissors and keep them paired together.

Repeat with as many bats as you want on your garland! I did 10 total (so I cut out a total of 20 bats).

STEP 2: Now you are going to glue together the outer edge of each two corresponding bats. I found it easiest to do this by doing the body of the bat first, matching up the two pieces, and then doing each wing to be sure your fabric pieces match up perfectly. NOTE! Leave about 1.5 inch space open on the bottom of one of the wings (this is where we will fill the bat with fluff in the next step).

Be sure that you are gluing the two backs of fabric together, so now both front/shiny sides of your fabric are facing outwards.

Allow the glue to completely dry overnight.

STEP 3: Next, you are going to fill the bats with a little bit of fluff (polyester fill)! Carefully add a tiny bit of fluff to the opening in your bat and then use the end of a pencil to push the fluff into place to fill the full bat shape.

You only want to do a tiny bit at a time, otherwise the edges might burst open in places. If that does happen, like it did in a few places for me, I just added a bit more glue and used a clip to secure that area in place while it dried.

Once you are happy with the thickness of your bats, you can close up the opening. I didn’t fill mine too much because I just wanted to give them a slightly rounded shape but not be too fluffy. Place a bit of glue on the inner edge that is open and push the two pieces together. Secure it in place with some clips while the glue dries overnight.

STEP 4: Once your glue has fully dried, you can begin to add the embroidered details. This step could definitely be optional if you are not interested in doing any sewing, but I do think this detail added a really cute touch to the bat shape!

Begin by drawing lines on the front of your bat wings with a pen or thin marker where you want to add the detail. See the image above to see where I drew my lines exactly.

Thread your embroidery needle with an embroidery floss that is close to the same color as your fabric. You only need to use 3 threads of the 6-thread embroidery floss to get the same thickness in your lines as I did. You are going to sew a very simple embroidery back stitch along your pen lines right through the fabric and fluff of your bat. This video is super helpful to see how to do this easy stitch!

I started each line with a small knot on the backside of your bat and then another knot when I got to the end of each line. If you keep all your knots on one side of the bat, you will now have a nice looking front side (shown above) and a more messy back side of each bat.

Repeat this process with all 10 bats!

STEP 5: Now it is time to punch the holes for your garland thread! I wanted to be sure this fabric garland would last for seasons to come, so I wanted to reinforce the holes with a tiny gold eyelet on each side. But this is obviously not necessary if you aren’t too worried about the longevity of your project (or if you want to minimize the amount of supplies/tools needed to make this).

To do this, you will need a Crop-A-Dile eyelet setter and some 3mm gold eyelets. I know the Crop-A-Dile is a fairly expensive craft tool for such a small detail in this project, but I actually purchased a few cheaper options prior to getting it and they did not work well at all. The Crop-A-Dile worked the very first time I used it, so its definitely worth the money IMO! Especially if you think you will use it for more crafts in the future.

To use this tool, you will find a really sharp hole punch cutter on the side (use the side labeled 1/8 inch). Carefully punch a hole at the very corner of each side of your bat wings. Next, stick a front eyelet piece into the hole on the good/front side of your bat, and an eyelet backing piece on the back side. Stick your Crop-A-Dile setter into the eyelet and firmly press down. The eyelet should now be flattened on the back and securely connected, creating a perfect eyelet to string your cord through.

Repeat twice on each bat, one on each wing.

STEP 6: Now all that is left is to add your cord! You can really use any type of thin ribbon, cord, or twine that you would like. But I happened to find this gold cord that matched my fabric bats so perfectly.

Cut a piece that is roughly 6 ft long (maybe a few extra inches to create loops on either side).

Create a loop knot on the very end of your cord (which can be used to hang up your garland if needed). Then string on all 10 of your bats. Be sure to string your cord through the FRONT of each bat on the left and back up from the BOTTOM of each bat on the right. This way, the good/front side of your bat will be visible and the more messy/back side of the bat will have the garland behind it.

Once you have strung on all 10 bats, you can create another loop knot in the other end to complete the garland. Now you can evenly space at your bats along the 6ft cord.

And your garland is complete! I ended up hanging mine up on the picture ledges that I have in my bedroom, so I didn’t even need the loops on the ends. I just draped it along the top shelf, and I love how it looks!

I think the gold finish makes this DIY piece look like something you could have bought from Anthropologie. I love how it looks paired with the shelves styled with some Halloween details. A super cute, subtle way to add a little Halloween whimsy to your space!

I know this project is a little more complicated than my other garlands, but I hope you’re inspired to give it a shot to create a really beautiful piece of seasonal decor to add to your collection that could even become a family heirloom one day!

Happy crafting! xo Rachael

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