DIY Autumn Wreath

October 31, 2019 · 2 Comments

DIY Autumn Wreath

One of the things I really like is coming home and seeing a wreath on my door.

To be honest, there’s not an awful lot of other things to like about the outside of my house at the moment. But if nothing else, at least my front door is pretty!

My latest wreath is one I made from some bits and pieces I bought from Dollar Tree while we were in the USA in August.

For those of you who are fellow English people, Dollar Tree is a lot like Poundland, except there’s more craft stuff.

The lovely leaf lights that are now on my dresser came from Dollar Tree, along with the flowers and the ribbon I used to make this DIY autumn wreath.

The wreath form is the one I used to make this wreath. I just pulled the flowers off and put them in a safe place in case I want to use them again in the future.

It was very easy and it didn’t take me very long. An hour would be plenty of time! If you live in the UK and you’re not likely to be visiting a Dollar Tree any time soon, you might find similar flowers and things in Wilko.

Instructions For Making a DIY Autumn Wreath

You Will Need

A willow wreath form
Artificial flowers and leaves
Wired ribbon (I used just under 3 metres)
A pipe cleaner or wire (for the bow)
Twine or similar for hanging your wreath up
Old scissors or pliers

Instructions

Make the bow. Doing this first will allow you to work out how much space you have to fill with the flowers on either side. There’s no point sticking flowers into your wreath, only to find that you can’t see them because they’re covered up by the bow!

To make my bow I used this YouTube video.

Cut the flowers, leaving 8-10 cm of stalk. With artificial flowers there’s usually wire inside the plastic. If you’re using scissors, you probably won’t be able to cut right the way through. Just cut through the plastic then bend the wire until it snaps. I’d recommend not using your best scissors! Otherwise use pliers.

Push the flowers into the wreath. I started with the big ones, then I added the smaller ones. Lastly I added the leaves.

Tie a loop for hanging.

Tips

Wired ribbon is best because it’s much easier to shape the loops and bend them into where you want them to go.

Odd numbers look better than even, so try to use an odd number of flowers, especially the larger ones. It’s less noticeable with smaller flowers. I used 2 of the larger flowers, but as there’s one each side of the bow, that works!

Remember that the wreath is a pretty thing in itself! It’s fine to have some of it showing.

When it comes to larger flowers, you only need a few. Space them out and fill in the gaps with smaller flowers.

How To Make a Tied Wreath

July 18, 2019 · 2 Comments

How To Make a Tied Wreath

Last week I decided it was time to make my front door a present in the form of a tied wreath.

A few years ago I made a new wreath for my door every couple of months.

What with everything else that was going on, I’d stopped doing this and my poor door was wearing a wreath that I made 3 years ago!

Making some more bunting to hang off the front of my house, it occurred to me that the bits left over could be cut up to make the pieces for another tied wreath, and I could get two things done at once (almost!).

Here’s the bunting. I made it in the same way that I made this last year. The lacy looking bits are cut from an old net curtain. My funny old house looks so much more cheerful!

And here are the instructions for making the wreath.

Instructions For Making a Tied Wreath

You Will Need

Wire (I used garden wire, but a wire coat hanger would work too)
Strong tape
Scraps of fabric

Instructions

Bend the wire round into a circle about 25 cm in diameter. If the wire you are using is quite thin, wrap in round several times to make it stronger.

Secure the ends with the tape.

Cut your fabric scraps into pieces approximately 2 cm by 10 cm (3/4 inch by 4 inches).

Choose one of the prints and tie pieces to the wire, spacing them out evenly.
Just tying them once is enough. I wasn’t fussed about having mine with the different prints all in a certain order, but I did want them spread out a bit.

Then choose another and tie those on in the gaps.

Repeat until you have some of everything tied on.

If you still have some spaces, fill them in with any remaining pieces.

The wreath will look best if the fabric scraps are close together, so budge them up a bit so that you can fill up all the spaces.

Now I have a wreath that matches my bunting!

You might also like these wreath tutorials:

I also have a Pinterest board devoted to wreaths which you can find here!

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 Dried Citrus Wreath

December 10, 2016 · 11 Comments

How to Make a Dried Citrus Wreath

One of my favourite pre Christmas jobs is to make a wreath for the front door. Usually I’ll make one from greenery and berries, but this year I wanted to try something different.

This dried citrus wreath has slices of dried orange, lemon and lime, with bay leaves and ribbon in between.

It’s fairly easy to put together and the bits and pieces are all easy to find. A trip to the supermarket should cover it if you don’t have what you need already!

The bit that takes the time with this wreath is preparing the fruit slices, sorting out the bay leaves and cutting the ribbon. Once you’ve done that, it all comes together quite quickly.

Instructions for Making a Dried Citrus Wreath

I’ve included some affiliate links.

You will need

Thick garden wire or a wire coat hanger, about 85 cm
Wire cutters
or old scissors
Strong tape, like gorilla tape or electrical tape
About 60 dried fruit slices (8-10 in total of oranges, lemons and limes should be enough). Instructions for drying the fruit can be found here.
Ribbon (about 5 m cut into 15 cm lengths)
Bay leaves (the cheapest ones I found were Polish ones in Tesco)
Wide ribbon for the bow
Florists’ wire (optional)
String, raffia or bakers’ twine for hanging

Assembling the Bits and Pieces

1. Cut the wire to size. If you’re using a wire coat hanger, just cut off the twisty bits and the hook. To do this, I cut through the plastic casing with the scissors, then bent it back and forth until it snapped.

If you’re using garden wire, you’ll need a length of about 85 cm.

You can make the wreath bigger or smaller by changing the length of the wire.

2. Cut up the ribbon. It will need to be in lengths of about 15 cm, into 4 roughly equal piles.

3. Sort out the dried fruit slices. You’ll need 8 piles with 7 in each pile. If there’s a lot of variation in size, choose larger slices to go in the middle of each group and smaller ones for either side. Check whether each slice has a hole in the middle. If not, poke a hole through with a knitting needle, darning needle or skewer.

4. Sort out the bay leaves. You’ll need 4 lots of about 15. Each bay leaf will need a hole through the middle.

5. Make the bow. Tie a bow in a length of wide ribbon. You could thread a piece of florists’ wire through the back, but if you don’t have any, strong thread will do.

Making the Wreath

1. Take one of the piles of fruit and start threading the slices onto the wire. Push them on so that they are about half way round.

2. Thread on one of the piles of bay leaves in the same way. I found the bay leaves to be quite brittle, so gently is the way to go!

3. Next thread on 2 more lots of dried fruit. You’ll be tying ribbons in between these once all the fruit and bay leaves are on the wire.

4. Thread on another pile of bay leaves, then another pile of fruit. You should have 4 lots of fruit slices, with bay leaves between the first and second group and the third and fourth group. This is one half of the wreath.

5. Take the other end of the wire and repeat steps 1 – 4.

6. Using the tape, stick the ends of the wire together. They’ll need to overlap by 5 – 10 cm. Wrap the tape around the overlapping part a few times to hold them securely.

7. Make a loop from the string or bakers’ twine and tie it to the top of the wreath.

8. Tie on the ribbons. These need to go in between the groups of citrus slices that are not separated by bay leaves, including the top part.

9. Attach the bow to the top of the wreath. If you are using florists’ wire, wrap the wire around the wire of the wreath. Otherwise just tie it on.