Simple Fall Wreath Tutorial

What can you make for less than $10, a coupon and an old shirt?  

You can make a lot of things, conceivably, however, I took my $10, coupon and old shirt and made a lovely Fall Wreath!  In the end, the finished wreath that I have hanging on my door today took less than an hour to make.  

The full story of this wreath, however, took a bit longer.  As nearly always happens, I had a moment of disaster in the wreath making process and almost gave up.  

Not just on the wreath, but on crafting in total.  But, that moment passed and I ended up with a finished product that I really think is adorable.  

Follow along with this simple fall wreath tutorial and I’ll show you what mistakes not to make.

Simple Fall WReath Tutorial

Before we get to the full tutorial, I want to give you a little snippet into what I went through in the making of this wreath.  I saw a couple of cute rag wreaths on line and I knew I wanted to try one.  

The first one I saw used felt in different colors, so in my first round of trying this wreath, I bought a bunch of felt and started adding it to the wreath.  Now, the colors I picked looked lovely in the store. But they were not working on the wreath.

I ended up adding different felt, taking away the felt, trying different colors together, SEVERAL times.  I was already super annoyed with this wreath.  It was taking a LONG time and I didn’t even really love it.  And then, it kind of started to come together.  

I was finally seeing a color combo I could live with.  And then.  CRAFT DISASTER!

Simple Fall Wreath Tutorial

Materials:

Simple Fall Wreath Tutorial
  • Wreath Form – I bought mine at Michael’s, but they aren’t available on-line, so I’m linking to one on Amazon that looks like the one I bought.  It’s white, it’s more expensive than the green ones you will see in the store, but you NEED to get the more expensive one, believe me.  I bought a 12″ form, but if I were going to make this wreath again, I would buy one size bigger.  It’s a little on the small side.
  • An old Shirt – You could also use fabric or felt.  I happened to find a shirt in a to be donated pile that was perfect for this and also free, which is always a good thing!
  • Burlap Ribbon, twine and a couple of sprigs of your favorite fall wreath ornament things to decorate the finished wreath
  • Craft paint in a color that coordinates with the shirt/fabric/felt you chose (this is optional, but I did it)
  • Glue Gun 

***A word about the supplies and the cost.  You really need to get the white wreath form, but choose whatever burlap ribbon and sprigs you want for decorating the wreath.  You don’t need a lot.  

I barely used any of the burlap ribbon I bought and I bought just two sprigs of the little orange ball/branch sprigs you see on the wreath.

I had a 50% off one item coupon PLUS a 20% off my entire order coupon for Michael’s, so my total for the wreath form, the ribbon and the sprigs was about $7.00.  I already had the craft paint and glue gun so I didn’t have to purchase that.***

Step 1

Paint you wreath form with your craft paint that coordinates with your fabric.  This is technically optional, but if you have any slightly bare spots, the painted wreath form will look better than the glaring white wreath form.  

I did a quick and careless job and didn’t worry too much about this step, other than to make sure it was dried before I started filling the form with fabric.

Step 2

Start cutting your fabric.  You can cut squares, about 2x2in or rectangles about 1×3.  It really doesn’t matter as long as you don’t leave the pieces too big.  Once you start applying them to the wreath, no one will notice that your cutting skills rival a pre-k child.  Do this part quick and don’t over think it.

ALERT!  MOMENT OF DISASTER IS IN THE NEXT STEP!

Step 3

Make sure your wreath form is dry.  LAY YOUR WREATH FORM DOWN ON THE TABLE!  

Why am I screaming this at you?  Because on my first try, I didn’t do this.  

Well, I did at first but at the end, like the very end when I was basically done, I was checking for bare spots on the wreath and I lifted it up in front of me to see where it needed more fabric.  I found a spot and instead of putting the form back down on the table, I held it in one hand and poked the fabric through with the other.  

And guess what happened?  The wreath form broke into 3 pieces.  Just shattered right in my hand.  

I let out a sort of half laugh/half cry and just stood there in disbelief.  I’ve made tons of mistakes while crafting, but never have I destroyed a piece with my bare hands.  It was so ironically funny that I wanted to laugh, but it was also so sad that I wanted to cry.

I do think that the cheaper wreath form I was using on this version also contributed to the crafting disaster which is why I definitely think this is a craft that requires the pricier wreath form.   The original that I used was more rigid and did not take to the poking that is required in this form of wreath making.

And then I think the craft gods smiled on me because sometime after my little tantrum, I walked by a pile of clothes that we were going to donate and I found the PERFECT fabric for this wreath.  

It was my daughter’s navy blue buffalo check button down and it was like that shirt was made for my wreath.  So I put my big girl pants on and went back to Michaels and bought the new wreath form, brought it home and started cutting up squares of lovely navy blue buffalo check.

Step 4

The picture below is of my first attempt, so it’s of the green form and the felt, but it will give you an idea of how to get the fabric on the wreath.

Using either the end of a small paintbrush or a skewer, or even the point end of a pencil poke a piece of fabric into the styrofoam.  Just place the end of the paintbrush in the middle of the fabric and poke it right into the styrofoam.  

Go about a 1/4 of an inch in.  The poking will turn your square or rectangle into a cute little blossom.  Continue doing this until the wreath is filled.  Don’t forget to get the sides of the wreath. You want a fully covered wreath.

Step 5

Decorate your wreath.  I made a couple of simple “flowers” with the burlap ribbon, some twine and some cute lace ribbon I forgot I had in my craft drawer.  

These are crazy simple to make, you basically are just sort of loosely wrapping the material around your fingers to form a flower like shape. With the burlap and lace ribbon, I twisted as I was wrapping it around my fingers.  

Then dab some hot glue on it to secure it to itself and then hot glue it to the wreath. Sounds way more complicated than it actually is, I promise.  

I ended up cutting my sprigs of orange balls into a few smaller pieces because I was terrified that I would break the wreath form again if I tried to force the larger sprig into it.

And that’s it!  If you avoid my disastrous mistakes, you have made a truly lovely little wreath for less than $10 and in under 1 hour!

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