KT Made It: Wreath

Let's face it: hobbies cost money! That includes arts and crafts. It doesn't matter how many Michael's 40% off coupons one seems to accrue - the fact of the matter is that the materials can be expensive! As such, I am making an effort to use up as much of the paper, fabric, yarn, and ribbon that I have in our house to forward my crafting ambitions.

My newest project was inspired by a recent trip to HomeGoods. Sometimes just walking around that store is enough to improve my mood - all of the cute stuff in there just makes me feel happy! It also turns out to be the perfect place to go searching for some creative inspiration. While I was there, I saw a wreath covered in rolled paper roses. Despite being a not-so-cute color of rust orange (meh!), I saw it and knew that I could make a pretty wreath for much less than $16.99 and in a much better color too. When I got home, I rummaged through the scraps of paper and fabric that have been building up in small piles throughout the house over the past few weeks. That's when I found the remaining light blue damask and solid red fabrics left over from the table runner that I made for the dining room a few weeks ago. I decided to make a wreath the hang in the dining room from the same fabric, and here is what I came up with...

What you need:

-Styrofoam wreath
-2 (or more) fabric patterns/colors, one for wrapping around the wreath and the other(s) for the roses
-Satin ribbon to hang the wreath
-Scissors
-Hot glue
-Needle and thread



First, I cut 1"wide strips of the damask fabric to wrap around the wreath. I hot glued the end of the first strip to the wreath, then began wrapping the strips around the wreath tightly, slighting overlapping the fabric. I hot glued the end of each new strip to the one before, and completely wrapped the wreath with the fabric.

 

Once the wreath was completely wrapped, I began working on the roses. I began by cutting 2"wide strips of red fabric that were ~22" in length. I wasn't sure how many roses I was going to need, but I ended up with about 20. To make the rose, I folded the fabric in half lengthwise, then made a running stitch along the length of the fabric leaving the end untied in order to scrunch the fabric.

 

After scrunching the fabric, I started at one end and began rolling the fabric strip lengthwise to form the rose. I added stitches as needed to keep the layers in place. Once the roses were made, I sewed them to the fabric wrapped around the wreath, concentrating them on the lower right side to give an asymmetric look. 

 

Next, I measured the length of satin ribbon that I wanted in order to hang the wreath. I made the length long enough to be able to tie a bow at the ends. I also cut an additional piece of ribbon to wrap around the wreath to hold the ribbon used for hanging the wreath in place. To attach the ribbon, I hot glued about 4-5" at the center of the ribbon to the top of the wreath. I then began wrapping the extra piece of ribbon around that which I had glued similar to the way that the fabric was initially wrapped around the wreath. Finally, I tied the ends of the ribbon into a bow.

 

After hanging the wreath, I decided to add a few extra roses to the top left of the wreath to balance out the roses at the bottom. And then I was done!