DIY Fall Leather Leaf Garland

Yesterday, I made this minimal fall banner out of some scraps of leather to decorate my mantle. I was going for an organic vibe, nothing to bright or cutesy. Jack joined me and we managed to turn it into a science lesson / art activity during our home school day!

To make this garland I used:

1. Leather scraps (mine were left over from some thrifted old coats I upcycled into pillows, but scraps can also be purchased at craft stores or on Amazon)
2. Leaf templates printed from the Internet here
3. Brass fasteners
4. Yarn crocheted into a 6 foot chain (substitute jute string from Walmart if you like)
5. Chalk to trace the leaves onto the leather

We enlarged the printable a bit so that the leaves would be about the same size as real ones. Depending on where you plan to hang the banner dictates whether to scale up or down in size.

We cut out four different types of leaves, extending the length of the “stem” to about 1 1/2 inches to allow for folding over the hanging string or yarn. Then we traced them onto our leather scraps using chalk. I used a different shade of brown or green for each leaf type and did a total of 11 leaves for our 6 foot banner.

To make this a bit of a science lesson, I had Jack identify the types of leaves by looking them up on the Internet. (Obviously this step can be omitted!)

Once we had them all cut out, we needed to make 2 small holes in each stem. I tried using a hole puncher but the leather was too thick to punch. In the end, I just folded each stem in half lengthwise and cut 2 tiny slits about an inch apart.

For the garland I used a 6 foot crocheted chain of yarn that I had made earlier for another project. I am not skilled at crocheting or knitting by any means but crocheting a simple chain was super easy. I watched a YouTube video to learn how to do it in no time.

You can easily substitute the crocheted yarn garland with a length of jute twine. I have purchased this in the past for other projects at Walmart. It would go nicely with the leather and still have an organic feel to it. I also thought that wood beads might be cute in between the leaves for a little boho vibe.

Then, we just pushed a brass fastener through the bottom slit of each leaf, folded the stem over the garland and then pushed the fastener through the remaining hole. We bent the prongs so that they lay parallel to the garland and don’t stick out above or below. I love this little touch of brass!

That’s it! I hung my banner across our faux fireplace.

To the top I added a vase of real leaves, some wicker demijohns and a few sweater pumpkins to go with the yarn theme. I shared the instructions for how to make the pumpkins using sweater scraps here.

So that wraps up my fall mantle and another fun day of homeschooling!

Happy Fall!

Debra