Purim Sameach (Happy Purim) Purim Door Garland

Purim is one of my favorite holidays. It's so festive and fun. On Purim Jews give each other something called mishloah manot. Mishloach manot are small gifts of food (usually sweets!). According to Jewish law each person must give at least one gift of at least two portions of food that are cooked and ready to eat. Ideally the giver should hand deliver the mishloach manot to the person who is to receive the gift. This means that on Purim a lot of people come to your front door, hence, the Happy Purim (Purim Sameach) Purim Door Garland. This garland combines two things I really love; wool felt and hand sewing. Surprisingly it was quite easy to make. I was able to sit with the kids and sew while they did their thing. Below is a quick tutorial.


-1/2 yard of two different colors of wool felt. I definitely had a fair amount left over but I needed the width of a 1/2 yard to make the felt piece that the flags hang off of. I ordered my felt from Weir Dolls and Craft it it got here in 2 days! They also have a huge selection of all kinds of different felt.
-Matching embroidery floss the same 2 colors as the felt.
-Needle
-Scissors and a rotary cutter if you have one
-Ruler
-Computer paper and pencil to make the triangle pattern and letter patterns
-Pins

1. Cut off a 1/2 inch by 30 inch wide piece of felt in both colors from the wide side of the felt. I used a rotary cutter and a ruler but you could also mark it off with a ruler and use a scissors to cut it.



2. Make a 6 inch equilateral triangle out of paper and use it as your pattern. Using a rotary cutter and ruler or a scissors (pin the pattern on if you are using a scissors) and cut out 4 triangles of each color so you have a total of 8 triangles. If you keep "flipping" the pattern over you will use less felt (see above picture).

3. Write Purim Sameach (in Hebrew!) using bubble letters on paper. Cut the letters out and use them as the patterns. Pin the cut out, paper, bubble letters on top of the felt that you will be using and cut them out. Make sure to cut out a purple letter for a red triangle and visa versa!



4. Pin the felt letters on to the triangles. Cut off the piece of embroidery floss you will be using and sepreate 3 of the 6 strands ( gently pull 3 strands off of the 6 strands that embroidery floss has). Sew on each letter with the 3 of the strands of floss using the staight (running) stich. Don't forget to use the red embroidery floss on the purple felt and visa versa.

5. When you are done sewing on the letters pin the triangles onto the long felt strips. Use 3 of the 6 strands of red embroidery floss and the straight stitch to sew on the purple triangles on the wool strip and visa versa.

6. Hang it on your door!