I first discovered this perpetual paper chains project a couple of years ago when I bought a copy of Stitch the Halls by What Delilah Did.

I fell in love with all of the projects in the book, but especially this one. It’s such a wonderful idea! You can see the perpetual paper chains I made for Tom’s Mum here. Since I made these, I have wanted to make some simple ones without the embroidery as I thought that would work really well. As with lots of projects, they are on my ‘to-do’ list for a while before I actually get around to making them! But they seemed perfect for Little One’s first birthday, and I started in January to give myself plenty of time!

I had my eye on some lovely wool felt from Cloud Craft for this project, and was lucky to receive some for Christmas. I decided to add in an extra shade of pink (links below). You can cut 6 strips from one 20 x 30cm sheet, which makes 3 links of the chain.

You will need

Sheets of wool felt cut into 25 x 3cm strips – I used the Macaron collection, plus one sheet of Bonbon (all from Cloud Craft)

Matching stranded cotton (all available here)

9mm snap fasteners (2 for each link of the chain)

Needle and fabric scissors

Plasticard, 0.5mm thick and cut into 24.5 x 2.5cm strips

Paper scissors or a craft knife for cutting the plasticard

Ruler and pencil

Instructions

Step 1

Having made a batch of these perpetual paper chains once before, I decided to make a template for the felt out of some plasticard. This made it easier to cut out the felt at exactly the same size. Measure 25 x 3cm and cut out your template.

Step 2

Once you have made your template you can cut out your felt pieces. Place the template on the felt and lightly draw around it. Carefully cut out the felt using your fabric scissors.

Don’t the pieces look lovely all cut out?

Step 3

Take two pieces of the same colour, and position the snap fasteners. Using two strands of embroidery thread, sew the base side of the fasteners 2.5cm/1″ away from the end (see photo in Step 4). Sew the two top parts of the fasteners to the very end of the other piece of felt at the same distance apart. I found it helpful to double-check they lined up before moving on to the next step!

Step 4

Layer the two strips of felt together so that the snap fasteners are facing out. Join them together by sewing along the edges, using two strands of embroidery thread. You might find that the felt stretches a bit here, but don’t worry – we can sort that out later. Try to keep it lined up as much as possible (I found it easier not to use pins but you could if you wish).

When you have stitched along 3 edges, place a strip of Plasticard inside. You might find it helpful to make a Plasticard template too, which will need to be 24.5 x 2.5 cm. I found that I needed to trim the Plasticard down a little when I placed it inside, just to ensure a snug fit.

Step 5

Once the Plasticard is in position, stitch along the open edge to close it. Secure the end of the thread with a couple of back stitches and then finish off. Join the snap fasteners to turn it into a chain link, and then repeat with your remaining pieces of felt.

I hope that Little One will always have these – it’s so nice to have something special that will come out every year!

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So the first thing I made were these record placemats for my lovely sister and brother in law. They got married last year too, and had a record-themed occasion (Ant is seriously into his records – what he doesn’t know about dance music isn’t worth knowing!). I originally found this project in issue 41 of Mollie Makes magazine, which came out way back in June, and had them in mind since then.

I wanted to match the middles of mats to the colour scheme that Naomi and Ant had at their wedding, which was teal and purple, but I just couldn’t find the right thing that I had in my head! I found this selection of fabrics in John Lewis – most of them are from the Glow collection by Amy Butler, and they compliment each other really well. 30cm of each one was more than enough to make these and to have a bit left over for my ever-growing fabric stash!

The next project I made was a perpetual ‘paper’ chain for Helen – when I saw them I immediately knew that she would like them. I found it in a wonderful book called ‘Stitch the Halls‘ by What Delilah Did, and then they printed it in Mollie Makes too! But it’s such a lovely book that I’d highly recommend investing in it for next year, and I’m so pleased that I have the other projects to work on as well.

These chains are definitely a labour of love, but are really lovely! I had never used waste canvas before (and actually bought the wrong thing at first – get the right stuff here). The ESTs (Estimated Stitch Times) given in the book are quite accurate, although it did take me ages to stitch the stags, and it took me about 20 minutes to remove the waste canvas.

[vc_gallery type=”image_grid” interval=”3″ images=”6488,6484,6485,6483″ onclick=”link_image” custom_links_target=”_self” column_number=”2″ grayscale=”no” choose_frame=”default” img_size=”large”][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1417803771710{padding-top: 30px !important;}”]Plasticard is a new material to me (I got mine on eBay) but it’s really great for strengthening felt and I’ll definitely be using it in future projects. I got a pack of seconds with a few scratches on and this made it cheaper – no-one will tell when it’s sewn in!

I’m so pleased with how they turned out! I also made a fabric envelope to keep them in. In case you’re wondering how long the chain is, I made 12 links in 6 different colours and they fit nicely above a door frame with a small piece of ribbon at each end. It’s the kind of gift that you could add a couple of links to every year, which would be great!

My final make this year was our Christmas cards – I had the photos for this printed out for so long but it took me ages to get around to making them and we didn’t get them in the post until the 19th December. Oops! Tom took this photo in Keswick last year and we knew it would make a lovely card. I made them size A7 with mini envelopes to match (if you’d like to make some envelopes and cards this size, click here for my tutorial from last year).

What did you make for presents this year? Were you lucky enough to receive a handmade present? I received some wonderful craft books, so look out for more projects in 2015!

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