Sweet November: Autumn Wreath

It's time for an Autumn inspired wreath.... just a little something pretty to hang on the wall. I really wanted to make a wreath for our sweet November week, the challenge was deciding on what type and style I was after. After a trip to Target and seeing their (now discounted) Fall collection, the one with the vintage horse awards and lots of florals mixed with plaids, I had a good idea of the style I wanted. Something casual with dressy elements!

  This wreath was a joy to create, particularly because I was able to use things that I already had available at home. Some vintage wool, remnant pieces of lace, a handmade flower & leaves and even my Grandmothers rhinestone pin, look around your home and see what you can find to work with before heading the craft store!  

I'll walk you through my process of creating this wreath. Remember though, that everything can be substituted for something that you're comfortable working with. (like a sewing machine, hand stitching would work just fine as well!)

Materials

For the wreath itself, I used:

- a foam wreath 

- fabric, in this case a thick wool plaid

- scissors 

- a measuring tape 

- straight pins

- sewing machine

Directions

1. Start by measuring your wreath and then add 1 inch (my wreath form measured 7 inches so I want to cut the fabric at 8 inches.)

2. Lay fabric out and cut the measured amount. Because I wanted to gather or bunch the fabric on my wreath form, I cut out a piece of fabric the was 8 inches wide by 5 ft. long. (If you're using a shorter length piece of fabric, you can also sew 2 smaller pieces together to make one long piece.)

3. Once you've cut your fabric it should look similar to a long scarf.

4. Fold fabric in half (printed sides together or right sides together.) I'll be honest and tell you with this fabric I couldn't tell what was the right side and which was the wrong side, so I gave up and just started pinning the fabric together.

5. Fold over and pin the entire length of the fabric, making sure to leave about 8 inches at the end, so that you'll have room to turn the fabric 'right side out' (These sewing terms make me feel a bit like my mom :)

6. Sew down the length of the fabric, stopping at the 8 inch mark at the end. Remove pins once the fabric has been sewn.

7. Once the sewing has been complete, slowly (and patiently) turn the fabric right side out, by pulling the end of the fabric through that 8 inch opening at the opposite end. This is where I started to doubt whether using a thick wool was such a good idea, but after 5 minutes and some grumbling, I had finally turned the fabric the right way! 

 8. Finish sewing up the opening on the end of the fabric, either by hand of with a sewing machine.

9. I used a serrated knife to cut through my wreath, but with a little arm strength you can easily break the wreath from where the seam is. (I've accomplished this particular feat with last years wreath!)

10. Start to shimmy your fabric onto the wreath form.

 11. Once all of your fabric is covering the wreath, overlap the end pieces. 

So that's all there is to the actual wreath! It probably looks more complicated than it really is, I tried to break down the photos into the steps I thought would be useful. Next you get to decorate your wreath! 

I looked around for embellishments that were similar in colors: white - peach - grey - gold

My original idea was to use a craft glue to adhere everything into place, but then I discovered straight sewing pins do a marvelous job at securing light weight embellishments!

Start with pinning any lace or fabric down to your wreath first. Just like scrapbooking, we're working on building layers. Next add the larger elements like flowers, I was able to push a straight pin directly through the inside of the flowers and ruffled them a bit so the pin disappeared from sight.

For the leaves, I tucked and pinned them under the flowers on both side! 

Depending on how many lovely embellishments you're able to find, keep repeating the layering and pinning process until your wreath is nothing short of perfection!

Hope you enjoyed my Wreath creating process! I promise it really is an easy project that should take right around an hour or so - a perfect Fall weekend project! I have another tutorial to share tomorrow, something sweet to wear this holiday season! 

See you then!