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Winter themed braided fabric wreath... |
You've likely seen a version of today's project before; the idea's been around
for awhile, I think.
For some reason, it resonated with me as something that I'd like to make when
I saw one on YouTube recently. The one being created was for Christmas,
but I wanted mine to be winter themed rather than holiday themed. I also wanted to add my own touches to the idea, specifically with some extra embellishments.
These are fairly easy to make and are probably a good year-round project to consider doing with kids. (Teach them straight line machine sewing; you can do the hard part of the hand sewing!) Using different fabrics can turn it into a decoration for whatever occasion you desire, from weddings to holidays.
The Lily and Loom selections used here came from
my last Bluprint purchase. One of them was featured last year on
my tabletop Christmas tree
project. The gray and white is a perfect fit for our northern winters.
The sewing part of this project takes almost no time, but the same can't be said of the stuffing part. I'll share with you my tips on how to make this easier, but please remember that the bigger you make your tubes — i.e., the larger you want the wreath to be (mine turned out to be a medium sized 12") — the more time consuming it will be.
I started with three WOF strips measuring 5" wide; width of fabric in my case
was about 43" (if your WOF is closer to 60", consider increasing the width of
the strip to 6"). Then it's a simple matter of folding the strip in half
lengthwise (with right sides together) and sewing along the long edge.
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| Starting with three fabric tubes... |
I turned them right side out with the help of a pair of
hemostats.
In case you're wondering, it's okay to piece the fabrics if you don't have a
long enough WOF section. I did that with the "snowflake" fabric. (You can see
where the seam is if you look closely at these photos.)
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| Prep the polyfil! |
Then I started tearing up the polyfil. I wouldn't recommend cramming in large
clumps because that may distort the appearance of the finished tubes; my
method was to tear it into small pieces so I could shove in about three at a
time.
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| Push some fill right to the middle and then continuing stuffing from both ends... |
Some tutorials tell you to sew up one end right away, but I'm pretty sure it's easier to fill these tubes from both ends, so I'd say leave
them open. Also, find something to help push the polyfil along (like this
little spoon of mine).
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The idea is to fill the tubes to the point of fullness, but not overly so. They can't be so stiff that they'll be impossible to braid.
The idea is to fill the tubes to the point of fullness, but not overly so. They can't be so stiff that they'll be impossible to braid.
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| Close up one end once the filling is done... |
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| Pin together and start braiding... |
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| Braid as tightly as you can... |
I ended up redoing the braid to make it tighter, but otherwise, there
weren't any issues. I think the goal is to make it as tight as possible so
it can hold the desired (circular) shape.
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| Figuring out how the ends can be sewed together... |
Once I was satisfied with the overall look, I machine sewed the other ends of the tubes (and yes, I had to unbraid some of it in order to do this) and then pinned them together with another safety pin.
The next step was to hand sew at each end so that the safety pins could be
removed.
Before the final step of connecting the two ends of the braid together with some more hand sewing, I looked through my various sewing notions for things that could be used to trim the wreath. I found the remnants of this silvery black cord from my sling bag project, as well as some white floral ribbon that was last used on my fabric recipe box. The flowers have a "snowflake" look to them.
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| Simple decorative touches to finish off... |
While this sort of embellishment could have been braided into the wreath originally, looping it on top means using less of it, as none of it shows on the back. (Also, they have the advantage of being just tucked in, not permanently secured; I can easily change up the look by using different trims.)
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| View of the back... |
The last thing I added was some silver-toned curling ribbon to hide the seamed area. (It was a temporary addition to facilitate the original photo shoot. I hadn't yet located the blue and silver thing from my gift wrapping stash that was perfect for it.) In any case, this is also something that can be changed out or added to, to suit the season.
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| Two different ways of hanging... |
Finally, a large safety pin on the back allows it to be hung from a hook.
This is on the door of our main floor bathroom. (After first hanging it up
with the ribbons dangling off the bottom, I decided that I liked it better
"upside down"... go figure.)
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| Closeup of the embellishments... |
Hubby teasingly deemed it a "dust collector", but I think it will lift my
spirits through the upcoming winter season. And on that note, one of my
favourite days of the year is fast approaching... the winter solstice that
marks the low point of our dreary dark days. Even though it means that winter is officially starting, I'm thrilled that we're on the upswing again in terms of more daylight hours!
'Til next...
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