DIY Diwali Bandhanwaar

Bandhanwaar is such an integral part of Diwali decoration and finding a good one here is really hard. I have been making my very own bandhanwaars every year for Diwali ever since I moved to Melbourne. The very first year I made it I handpainted a very intricate pattern on a cardstock paper and then used some large silver sequins in the centre. My Italian neighbour loved it so much that he asked me not to take it down, atleast till it doesn't fall off on its own, such a great compliment! This year I used felt and sequins to create my bandhanwaar. Felt is one of my favourite craft materials, it is not only easy to work with it doesn't need finishing on the edges. It's not that I don't like the traditonal bandhanwaars, I just wanted to make something simple, yet beautiful. I used very basic traditional Indian colours and combined with some sequins in gold, silver and copper.

I was so happy with how the first one turned out that I made another one with paisley motifs. I used more green than red on the second one and probably more copper sequins.

All you will need:

Felt in some contrasting colours
Sequins or any embellishment of your choice
Fabric scissors
Craft glue
Lace or fabric tape to hang the bandhanwaar

 Cut the base colour felt to the length that fits your front door. Leave the top end straight and give the bottom end a scalloped edge. Add the contrasting colour felt in different shapes like paisley, heart, circle or triangles. You can play around with the pattern and design as you like before pasting them with craft glue on the felt base. 

Add the sequins and keep up the creativity and fill in the negative spaces on the bandhanwaar. Add the fabric tape on the top side of the bandhanwaar, I used a gold colour tape as shown in the picture below.

You can play around with the design and come up with something completely different to the one I made and add pearls or kundans instead of sequins and decorate your bandhanwaar.