Thursday, December 15, 2022

The moment I saw the Anthro Bren Garland, I knew I had to DIY dupe it! It's such a fun smorgasbord of different yarn textures and hanging features - both of which can be easily modified to a different color palette as well as different hanging elements. The choices are totally endless!

I knew I wanted to keep the bells and tassels but some fun options would be disco balls, pompoms, charms, tiny bottle brush trees, felt ornaments, mini baubles, etc.

YOU WILL NEED:

  • medium thickness yarn
  • Yarn Bee Cotton XXL Yarn - you can use any "bulky" yarn for the thicker tassels, but I prefer this specific one for a very similar look to the garland!
  • bells - very similar to the heavily popular ones selling out everywhere!
  • disco balls - instead of mushrooms, I'm adding disco balls but you can add whatever hanging embellishment you'd like. suggestions: pompoms, small ornaments, more bells, etc.

DIRECTIONS:

Let's start at the base of the garland and then we'll add the other elements later on! Going by the pictures online, the base looks to be a simple, three piece, yarn-braided rope. The beauty of DIYing a garland? You can choose your own length! The Anthro garland is 72" so I went with that length as well. 

Unfortunately, explaining a three piece braid is difficult to type, but basically, you would gather three strands of yarn and knot them together at the top with about three inches hanging off the other side, just for show. For the braid, you'll take one strand (I start with the left) and put that over the middle piece. Than take the right strand and put that over the new middle piece (formerly the left). Hopefully, this makes sense. Keep braiding until you're down to a few inches and knot it, with those few inches hanging (again, just for show).

Now that the base braid is done, let's get started on the tassels! You can make as many or as little as you want but I knew I wanted to make a few of each color used, as well as some with mixed yarns. To make a tassel, take your yarn and wrap it around three of your fingers about eight loops. Gently, slide it off your finger, making sure they stay in a circle and slide a piece of extra yarn into the loop and knot it so that it's almost "locking" the circle in place. Now, cut the bottom so that all the piece of yarn are uncut, but the top is still knotted. Guys, I already know I'm not making sense. 😂 Here's a great video that'll show you what the heck I'm talking about.

Once you're tassels are done, fluff them out! I used my fiance's comb (sorry babe!) to fluff them. The fluffier, the more reminiscent of the ones on the Anthro garland!

For the hanging elements, I just used small pieces of yarn and knotted everything into place on the braid. There wasn't really any rhyme or reason for placement. In retrospect, I will definitely be going back and adding more, as well as fluffing the tassels more. Hey, you live and you learn! Super happy with it!

What do you guys think? Did I nail the Anthro Brenn garland dupe?