Easy DIY Felt Flower Wreath

February 8, 2018 · 2 Comments

Easy DIY Felt Flower Wreath

Since my Christmas wreath came down, my poor front door has been left without a wreath.

I’ve got plans to cheer it up by painting it a pretty shade of green, but the weather’s been either too cold or too wet!

Until spring turns up (hopefully soon, so bored of winter now!), my door needs something.

Inspired by so many beautiful felt flowers on Pinterest, I decided to have a go at making some, which I could then use to make a felt flower wreath.

Making the felt flowers was surprisingly easy! The best kind of crafts are the sort when you can get good results easily, and these felt flowers definitely fall into that category.

I bought some buttons to put in the centre of the flowers, but in the end I decided they were pretty enough for a felt flower wreath without them!

How to Make Felt Flowers

I have included some affiliate links.

You Will Need

Felt (I used these felt sheets from Minerva Crafts), a glue gun, items to make the circle templates, a willow or grapevine wreath.

Making the Templates

I made three templates by drawing round a bowl, the lid of a tin and a mug. This gave me templates that were 16 cm across, 12 cm and 9 cm.

In the end I decided that the largest flowers were a little bit too big, so I didn’t use them. I might glue them to hair clips and wear them in my hair instead!

Making the Flowers

1. Cut circles from felt.

For the wreath I used 3 of the middle sized flowers and 9 smaller flowers.

2. Cut a spiral into the circle. As the centre of the circle will form the outside of the flower, the spiral will need to get wider towards the middle.

3. Starting at the outside, carefully roll the spiral up. To start with, the bit you cut will be the bottom of the flower.

4. Keep rolling! When you’ve rolled up the whole spiral, you might like to put a pin through the flower to hold it.

5. Using the glue gun, put a blob of glue on the bottom of the flower. Stick the end of the spiral over the base of the flower.

You could probably sew them if you prefer, or use PVA glue or fabric glue, but I’d recommend using the glue gun. I’d actually not used one before, but it was very easy, the things stuck very well and the glue dried nice and quickly.

6. To make the leaves, cut a strip of green felt, then cut it into rectangles. Cut a curved bit away from corner to corner, then do the same on the other side. Don’t worry about getting them all the same size. You can use smaller leaves with the smaller flowers, and anyway in nature leaves are usually different, even on the same plant!

7. Stick 2 leaves to the base of each flower.

Attaching the Flowers to the Wreath

I apologise for the lack of photos for the steps here, I got so carried away I kept forgetting to take pictures!

1. Take the 3 middle sized flowers and glue them to the wreath. I put the top and bottom flowers closer to the inside edge of the wreath with the leaves pointing inwards, in the middle flower closer to the outside edge with the leaves pointing outwards.

2. Take 3 of the smaller flowers and arrange them around one of the larger flowers.

Then do the same with the other 2 larger flowers and the rest of the smaller ones. Don’t worry if there’s some wreath showing. You might want to cover it completely, but I think that being able to see wreath in between breaks it up a bit, like silences in music.

3. Thread a piece of ribbon through the felt flower wreath and hang it up!

If you enjoy making door wreaths, you might like to have a look at my wreaths page!

How To Make a Burlap Christmas Wreath

December 2, 2017 · 8 Comments

How To Make a Burlap Christmas Wreath

One of my favourite pre Christmas jobs is to make a wreath for the front door.

In the past, I’ve used a foam ring and made one with greenery and berries. But over the last few years, I’ve tried making different kinds of wreaths instead.

Making a green wreath was going to be harder this year as my source of Leyland Cypress has been cut down and replaced with a fence. It’s less work for the people who run the plant nursery behind us, but it’s less useful at Christmas!

The oasis flower foam people recently sent me a couple of rolls of burlap ribbon along with a vase and a lantern. I’ve used the lantern, and I wanted to make something with the ribbon.

I also made some felt poinsettias earlier in the week, and as somebody on Facebook suggested, they would look very nice on a wreath!

So I decided to make a burlap Christmas wreath.

Initially I decided to have a go at making a bubble wreath, but I discovered that my wreath form wasn’t the same as the ones used in the tutorials I’d found on YouTube. It’s also not as easy as you’d think, and you need masses of ribbon! I had 3 rolls, each with 3 metres on, and it wasn’t enough.

So I undid it and tried something else! This is what I came up with.

The ribbon is plaited around the wreath form. The messy bit where the ends are is covered with the bow. The felt flowers are the same ones I made earlier in the week (the tutorial for them is here).

So here are the instructions for making a plaited burlap Christmas wreath!

I have included some affiliate links.

Plaited Burlap Christmas Wreath Tutorial

You Will Need

A wreath form (I got these from Amazon), wide ribbon in 3 different designs (3 3 metre rolls will be plenty), felt flowers (the tutorial for the poinsettias is here), a pipecleaner or an elastic band, a needle and thread.

The burlap ribbon I used came from Oasis Home and Hobby. The tartan stuff came from the weird little shop over the road from my house.

Making the Wreath

1. Using the pipe cleaner or an elastic band, secure the ends of the ribbon to the wreath form.

2. Start to plait the ribbon around the wreath form. To do this, take the ribbon from the back around the edge, then through the gap in the centre.

Keep going! Try to keep the plaited sections about the same size.

When you get to the joins, just take care to cover them up. You can always pull the ribbon a little bit to hide them.

3. When you get back to wear you started, tie the ends by wrapping them round the wreath once and pulling the ends through.

4. To make the bow, make a loop with a piece of ribbon and sew the ends together. You might like to gather it a little bit.

5. Hold the bow to the wreath over the ends, then take a piece of contrast ribbon and wrap it around the wreath and the bow. Sew a few stitches at the back to hold it in place.

6. Cut another piece of ribbon and fold it in half to make the tails of the bow. Sew it to the back of the wreath.

7. Take your felt flowers and arrange them at the bottom of the wreath on one side. Sew them to the wreath by sewing a couple of stitches into the back of the flower and passing the needle through the wreath. Sew a couple of stitches into the ribbon and tie off the ends.

8. Hang the wreath on your door and expect to feel Christmassy every time you come home!

If you like making wreaths, you might like to take a look at these wreath tutorials here.

How to Make a Needle Felted Pumpkin

October 20, 2017 · 6 Comments

How to Make a Needle Felted Pumpkin

There’s something about autumn that makes me want to leave the sewing machine alone a little bit and reach for some woolly crafts.

I discovered wet felting a few years ago, and if you’re looking for a new craft to try, I’d recommend it!. The wool rovings are lovely to work with and it’s quite easy to get pleasing results, even if you generally don’t consider yourself to be artistic.

Needle felting has been on my list of things to try. I’ve never used wet felting it to make something solid, only pictures, and to be honest, I didn’t fancy clearing up all the mess and the water afterwards!

With wet felting, it’s the warm water, soap and rubbing that makes the fibres felt together.

With needle felting, the needle has barbs on it that catch the fibres, so the felting occurs that way.

It took me an hour or so to make a pumpkin, although the process could be speeded up with one of those pen things that allows you to use more than one needle.

Here’s how to make a needle felted pumpkin!

Instructions For Making a Needle Felted Pumpkin

I’ve included some affiliate links.

You Will Need

Wool roving in autumn colours (including green), felting needle, foam mat. If you don’t have a foam mat, you could use a washing up sponge instead.

Making the Pumpkins

1. Pull off some of the roving. This is easier to do if your hands are further apart. Pull the fibres apart until it’s fluffy.

2. Roll the roving into a ball.

3. Start jabbing the ball with the needle. Make sure you stab it all over so that it felts evenly. Just mind your fingers because stabbing yourself hurts!

As the fibres start to felt, you can shape it by poking the needle in diagonally. After a few minutes it will start to firm up. Keep going until you have a ball. It should be quite firm on the outside with no wispy bits, but still squishy.

4. To make the pumpkin shape, stab in a line from the north pole of your ball down to the south. Go over this a few times. Repeat on the opposite side. Keep going like this until your ball is divided up into little segments like a satsuma (or a pumpkin!).

5. To make the stalk, pull off some green roving and fluff it it up like you did for the pumpkin. Roll it into a sausage and start poking it with the needle.

6. Keep rolling it over and poking it with the needle. Leave one end fluffy and free. When it’s firm, fold the top over and felt it to the rest of the stalk.

7. Take the fluffy end and spread the fibres out. Position the stalk on the top of the pumpkin and using the needle, felt the stalk to the pumpkin.

Tips

To mix colours, pull the fibres apart. Put them together and keep pulling until the colours are mixed.

You can add other fibres to the outside of the pumpkin once it starts to hold its shape. Just remember that the gold stuff and the silk fibres won’t felt, so you’ll have to put a tiny bit of roving over the top, then felt it.

Remember that the felting process makes stuff smaller!

Have fun! It doesn’t matter if the pumpkins aren’t a perfect shape, because the real ones aren’t either.

DIY Autumn Flower Arrangement

September 29, 2017 · 3 Comments

DIY Autumn Flower Arrangement

One of the positive things I’ve discovered about getting older is that I’m much comfier in my own skin.

Among the things I have realised are that it’s fine to be a home loving introvert with anti social tendencies and preferring the colder months to summer is not a crime against humanity, the weather or anything else.

And I have discovered that out there in internetland, there are a whole lot of other people like me!

So for all you autumn loving, introvert homebodies, here is a diy flower arrangement for you!

It’s very easy. If you’ve not tried anything like this before, don’t be put off!

My tips are: odd numbers are best, keep it simple and fill up the gaps with greenery or small stuff, but don’t overdo it.

Ready?

How To Make an Autumn Flower Arrangement

You Will Need

Oasis flower foam, something to put the arrangement in (I was sent these drawers by Oasis Home and Hobby along with the flower foam), 3 sunflowers, 9 orange chrysanthemums, greenery with berries.

I bought the sunflowers and the chrysanthemums from the supermarket and for the greenery with the berries, I raided the hedgerows for hawthorn, which grows in abundance round here.

Before You Start

Cut the oasis block down to size and pop it in the sink to soak. It’s ready when it sinks. This won’t take very long providing it’s a fairly small piece and not a whole block! Mine was ready within about half an hour.

Cut the stems of the flowers. If you’re using the same drawer thing for your arrangement as I did, the sunflowers need to be about 20 cm high, the chrysanthemums about 12 -15 cm and the greenery/ berries about 10 cm.

If you’re using something different for your autumn flower arrangement, you’ll need to check against your container. Generally, the stems of the main flowers need to 1 1/2 times the height of the vase or container.

Making the Arrangement

1. Pop the oasis block into the container, then push one of the sunflowers into the oasis, in the centre but nearer to the front than the back. Push the other 2 sunflowers in on either side, closer to the sides and front of the arrangement.

2. Now add the chrysanthemums. Arrange them around the sunflowers so that they are evenly spaced. Put one each in the front corners, between the sunflowers and the rest around the back.

3. Fill in the spaces with the greenery and berries.

Of course it won’t be absolutely symmetrical and that’s part of the charm! But aim for a balance by using pieces of a similar size.

Now all you need to do is decide where to put your autumn flower arrangement!

How to Knit If You Are a Crocheter

July 7, 2017 · 4 Comments

How to Knit If You Are a Crocheter

Within the last few months, I have discovered something I suspected all along.

I am a knitter.

Not much of a knitter, at least not yet! But I am a knitter and I have knitted a sock. Ta da!

I’ve been sewing and crocheting since I was a little girl, but despite my mum’s best efforts, I never managed to get the hang of knitting. I knew how to knit, but I could never do it properly. My needles never clicked in a satisfying way and making even baby cardigans would take me several months.

In October, we went to Norway. While on a bus in Oslo, I spotted a woman knitting. I noticed that she was knitting in a different way.

It had never even occurred to me that there were other ways of knitting, and that there might be a way to knit if you are a crocheter! So I tried this other way and found I could do it!

This particular way of knitting (known as continental knitting) is much more like crochet. The yarn and the knitting are held in the left hand (if you’re right handed), and the stitches are made by the needle in the right hand. It’s very similar to crochet.

So for those of us who crochet but struggle with knitting, this is perfect!

Some of the stitches on the sock are uneven and it did take me a little while. But I did it! It was much easier and quicker than knitting the other way. I am now a knitter of socks. Or for the moment at least, sock.

I’ve written a piece about this over on the Minerva Crafts Bloggers’ Network, which you can find here. It includes links to a video showing how to do continental knitting, and the sock tutorial I used.

If you like the idea of knitting but have never got on with it, I encourage you to have a look!