Tutorial: Making A Wreath

Happy Spring ya'll!  Need a fun weekend craft project? What better way to celebrate the changing seasons than with a new wreath on the front door.

My spring/summer wreath

This past fall, after seven years living in our current home, I finally set out with resolve to find one.  The problem was, I couldn't find a wreath I liked for the price I wanted.  I even received a gift card to a craft shop and visited with the intention to buy one, but I just couldn't find anything my style.  As if the price tags weren't deterrent enough, everything seemed too big and fancy and whimsical.  Just not me.

I'm sure I could have found one on Etsy that fit my fancy, but the truth is I haven't figured all that out just yet and I didn't want to spend the time searching online.

So what did I do?  What any American mom would do.  I headed to Walmart one night after a typical late night grocery run. I headed to the craft section not having a clue what I was looking for, but fairly certain that if nothing else, I would like the price.

Much to my delight, they had amazing options.  I saw those wire rim wreaths first, but those looked a little above my pay grade.  I decided on the 16" foam wreaths and bought two.  In the same aisle they had spools of adorable burlap, ribbed ribbon, and burlap lace so I picked up what I liked.  These are the wreaths I ended up making:

My fall wreath.  You can easily add a monogram using a glue gun if you'd like.

Our front porch this past fall.

My winter wreath

For this tutorial, I'm going to show you how I recently made my spring/summer wreath you saw at the beginning of this post.  I needed another foam wreath for this project.  Unfortunately, in my area both Walmart and Meijer have discontinued foam wreaths since last fall.  So, this time I hopped on over to Michael's to find what I needed.  I wanted something cheery, but also calm with a bit of a vintage look, not too bright.  For my wreath I picked up:

• an 18" foam wreath (2" bigger than Walmart, and also more pricey at $13.99 compared to $6.97 for the 16")
• a spool of tight weave burlap ($6.99)
• a spool of ivory arrow chevron ribbon ($4.99)
• a spool of pear green burlap ribbon ($3.97)
• a spool of peachy coral ribbon ($2.97)

I forgot to snap a picture of just the foam wreath.

I didn't end up using the sheer or coral ribbon pictured here.

From my house I gathered:

• silk flowers from an old arrangement in the basement
• pins from my sewing box
• burlap lace ribbon left over from my first wreath-making session. ($4.97, pictured above)
• masking tape

The total dollars spent for my spring/summer wreath was $32.91 (not including my leftover lace burlap from my first project).  If you do not already have silk flowers to use you will need to buy those.  Plan to spend anywhere from $8-$16 depending on where you shop, what sales you hit, and how many flowers you want.  It's not exactly cheap, but it is custom and therefore will be exactly what you like. 

Remember I am a cheapskate.  For cheapskates like me, it is important to note that I got more than just my wreath for $32.91.  There are a few spools of ribbon that still have ribbon left on them.  I will tuck the leftover ribbon away in my craft closet to use in the future on another project or for wrapping gifts.  This is what I did during this project when I used leftover ribbon from my fall and winter wreath projects for my spring/summer wreath.  Had I bought a pre-made wreath from the store I would not have materials for future use.

Ok, so now that you have your supplies gathered it's time to assemble your wreath.

First, start with your base fabric ribbon that will cover the foam.  I chose to use a spool of burlap.  At an angle begin wrapping the burlap around the wreath.  Each time you come around try and give a notice to the spacing as your burlap overlaps itself.  Even spacing will look the most appealing to the eye once you are finished.

After your base fabric has covered the entire wreath, grab two pins and pin the fabric in place.  Then you will flip the wreath over to see how you did.  If there are any places that look bunchy now is the time to rewrap your ribbon.

Next, choose your widest ribbon to use for your "angled stripes" around your base.  In my case the widest ribbon was my ivory chevron ribbon.  I followed the same process as with the burlap except this time I did not overlap my ribbon, but instead left several inches between the ribbon each time it came around.

Once you get around to your starting point make sure your spacing is even and then pin the ribbon in place like you did with the burlap.  It is helpful to start each ribbon at the same place so all the pins end up in the same general area as well.

I continued this process with my remaining two ribbon colors, centering them on top of each other widest to thinnest.  For my wreath, my green ribbon came next and my coral ribbon followed.  After those two layers were pinned in place I finished off the look with a wide lacy burlap ribbon.  I wrapped this ribbon in similar fashion covering over all three ribbons, the ivory, green and coral.

Because the lacy ribbon has spaces and does not pin down easily, I first placed a piece of masking tape over the ends of the ribbon and then placed pins through the masking tape.

The final step is to add embellishments such as flowers.  I had actually purchased green flowers for my wreath, but I didn't like the way they looked once I placed them on the wreath.  I think I will use them in the future on a thinner wreath or for a different project.

These are the flowers I didn't end up using.

I needed to find a replacement for the green flowers so I went down to my craft closet in the basement and found an old floral arrangement that I was not using.  I plucked three heads of the bigger ivory blooms out of my existing arrangement and pinned them through the middle onto the wreath.

I was able to pluck these flowers off by hand.  Some silk flowers will require wire cutters to remove the blooms depending on how they are assembled.  Additionally, some embellishments are too heavy to simply pin down.  For my winter wreath I used a hot glue gun to attach the pine cones to my wreath.

Whola!  You have yourself a simple, yet stylish custom wreath.  Unless, of course, you linger over decisions and change your mind frequently like me....

I ended up going for a simpler look and removing the orangey coral ribbon because I wanted to see more of the green and I also rearranged my blooms into a smaller tighter cluster.  That's the beauty of using pins instead of a hot glue gun!  After all, it's a woman's prerogative to change her mind, right?

A little closer look to show you the detail.

Happy Spring!  May you dwell inspired as Christ dwells in you.