A Burlap Wreath For All Seasons

Hi there!

Here's a project I did this past fall (I know, I know...) and I wanted to share it with you (finally)!

Better late than never, though, right?

It's actually a wreath that can easily be transformed to fit whatever occasion you need because it's so easy to change up!

The things I used were really quite simple to come by. I like to try to pick up some rolls of burlap whenever I am at Hobby Lobby. It's cheap ($4.99 for the natural color, but they sell other colors, too and if you happen to have a 40% off coupon...why not get some?) and they keep it stocked. 

Even Walmart has been stocking this now in different widths, colors, and even patterns, but I'm sure with the massively growing popularity of burlap, you should be able to find it anywhere. Bridget, of LittleLovelyLeaders.blogspot.com, a blog for teachers, made the tutorial I used and she got her burlap from Michael's.

Anyway, my point is, I've always got some on hand. I also had the brown chenille ties, so that's what I used to hold it all together. The only thing I had to go out and buy was the metal wreath form. That was at Walmart for just a couple of bucks. 

That's it! No glue, and hardly any scissor use, except for cutting up the chenille stems into 3rds...

I got a little ahead of myself before I took the first picture, but you get the idea of what the wreath form looks like, right? 

This is how I attached my burlap...

I didn't use as much burlap as Bridget's how-to, so my instructions are a wee bit different than hers. If you don't have as much burlap ribbon on hand, or want to save a little money, this is what I did.

I followed the tutorial exactly and attached the end piece of my burlap to the wire using a piece of the chenille tie by poking it through the burlap on either side of the wired wreath form and twisting it tightly in the back.

Then, I just scrunched up the burlap, making loops in the size that I wanted, and attaching those as close to, or as far away from, the last piece that that I had tied onto the form with a chenille stem, until it looked good to me. I just sort of pinched my burlap, pushed the chenille through the holes in the fabric and slid it up and down on the wreath form until I liked where it sat, then just twisted the chenille tightly in the back to secure.

Here is a back view of what the chenille looks like from behind. When you make your loops, you want to make sure the next one is attached at least close enough to hide the stem on the last loop. Make sense? 

This is what it will start to look like. Mine is not as full, because I didn't use as much burlap, but I'll show you how I fixed that without using a ton of rolls and driving up the cost of this project!

Amazingly, I only used one roll of burlap, and this is how I did it.

I knew I wouldn't have enough to make it evenly full all the way around with just one roll, so, I gauged how much I needed as I went along. I won't lie...I did make a couple of adjustments along the way. Then, when I got back to where I started, I simply started to twist the roll on itself, like you would crepe paper streamers, and loosely wrapped it back around the wreath sort of filling in where it needed it and making sure to cover any visible chenille stems. 

When I got to the end, I poked a stem through the underside of the "tail" end and attached it to the wreath form, making sure it was hidden (even though it's the back side, I don't care for 'unfinished edges').

I twisted it onto the form and tucked it under another fold of the fabric.

                                                                   All hidden away!

Here's the back side of the wreath with the twists of burlap covering the chenille ties and exposed metal wreath form...

And here's the front all filled in! 

I just fluffed it up and it's ready to decorate.

Next, what to decorate it with?

It was Autumn and I had just gone on my yearly pumpkin and gourd picking trip with my sister. There is a little farm that grows a wide variety of  squash and sells it roadside for cheap! It's in a little town about 40 minutes from us, but the drive is lovely and I love helping a local small business out. 

Aside from all the unique pumpkins and gourds, they had this beautiful shellacked Indian corn. There were so many beautiful colors and bundles, I couldn't decide!

I finally picked this bunch; it was the most colorful.

The corn was already bound together with heavy gauge wire, so I just wrapped jute twine around the wire a few times to hide it and worked some twine through the wired wreath form to tie it on. After making sure it was sturdy, and a few adjustments for aesthetics, I tied a little raffia around it and I was done! 

The whole thing was easy to hang onto a wreath hook because the wire wreath form was so compatible. 

                                                      Just look at all those beautiful colors!

What also sold me on this bunch was the fabulous striations of purple throughout the husks! Just beautiful...

 Each piece is like a little fingerprint...no two are alike...

Is anyone else as excited as I am about each little kernel of this corn?! 

Call me crazy, but I think it's beautiful ;)

If you've been longing for a burlap wreath of your own, I hope you will try making this for yourself. It's not as hard as it may seem and is quite cost effective, since you can change it up to match whatever decor you are into at the time, so it's really worth it. Let me know if you decide to try one and send me a picture of how you decorate it!

I want to say thank you to Bridget, at Little Lovely Leaders for her original tutorial on this burlap wreath how-to. Be sure to drop on over to her blog for more great ideas!

Thanks for stopping by today, and have a great week.

Nanette

* All opinions are my own. I receive no endorsements from any sponsors mentioned in the above post:     Hobby Lobby, Walmart or Michael's.

A new tree skirt

I found this great tree skirt on, you guessed it, Pinterest, and I just had to do it! Little did I know it would be the biggest undertaking of the YEAR!

First off, you can see the original post from the pin here. It's a way cute blog, and her post encouraged me to try one myself. However, I must have had a bigger skirt than her, or I was way more greedy with my material, well...just keep reading...

I used an old silver tree skirt we have had packed in with the decorations for years. I purchased my burlap. Now, I have a ton of burlap. I always have. I've been using burlap in my projects for about four years already. Little did I realize the burlap craze would deplete the stores of said burlap. Silly me...

Anyway, I had to travel about an hour away to a Hancock Fabrics to get the "good" burlap. If you have ever worked with it, you know that burlap will "shed" and fray like crazy. What I bought was not on purpose, it's just what was out there. I had a 50% off coupon, which was good, because this was a more expensive kind. It did not shed, it did not fray..much.

I already had tons of muslin fabric. I followed Ashley's instructions, but I may not have done her justice. I started with the row of Muslin, then Burlap. It was really easy to glue, bur I did suffer some burned fingers once in a while...

I got my first four rows done and this is where the trouble began, I guess. I wasn't very liberal with my material. I ran out almost completely. Now, since burlap all comes in different colors, I didn't have any that matched...of course. What I did have was some red burlap. I had to improvise. I wish I had been able to foresee the way this was going, I would have been able to plan my color scheme better. Oh well, this is what I worked out.

After the first four rows, I made another row of muslin, so I did two rows of red and muslin to "match" the first four rows. Then I used a thinner muslin and made a larger ruffle close to the middle, and used what I had left over of the original brown burlap to finish it off. Not too shabby, right?
I just feel it would have looked a little better with the colors interspersed a little, though, no?

Our tree stand is very big. It has a large well for water, and it is an adjustable stand. There's a foot pedal that you can step on while the tree is up and even decorated, to adjust the tree if it is leaning. So, it's BIG. That's why the skirt I used was so much bigger.

Pretty cute, though, right? My sister came in and saw it and immediately said "Oooh, I want one!"
My response?

"NO WAY!" I told her I'd rather give her mine that to ever do this project again. Maybe it's because I did it in the floor. And it took me hours...HOURS...to finish. I'm not kidding. Three days and about 5-6 hours each sitting. (If ever there was a time I wanted spiked Eggnog, this was it. For real.)
5 hours today alone to finish it. I think I got too particular on the ruffles, and that's what took so long. Had I been a little looser my fabric would have lasted longer, too, I think.

Oh well, you live and you learn. I hate to say I'll never do it again, because now I feel a challenge to myself to get it 'right'. Maybe my sister has one in her future, after all...

If you decide to do one, I'd love to see it. I know it's a little late in the season this year, but it's never too early to get a jump on next year!

What other projects are you working on for Christmas?

Have fun, and thanks for reading today!

Nanette