Craft a festive fabric wreath

A Christmas wreath for you front door will offer a warm and inviting welcome for visiting family and friends. Plus, if crafted by your own fair hands, it will undoubtedly spread a satisfied smile across your face each time you come face to face – and that’s probably a fair bit. Here’s how to conjure your own creation…

With the festive season fast approaching I thought it the perfect time to indulge in some Christmas craft. These fabric wreaths are a great way to decorate your house or Christmas tree and are really quick and easy to make.

This is what you will need:

A Styrofoam wreath

Pins

Fabric scraps, including a number of long lengths

Embellishments like ribbons, flowers, buttons, sequins

A short length of ribbon or string

First you need to wrap your wreath in fabric to cover the foam. I have chosen to use a length of fabric (the longest I could find) but you could also use a ribbon. If you are using fabric, iron over 1cm along one length to create a neat, straight edge.

On the back of the wreath, use a pin (taking care not to have the sharp end sticking out the other side) to hold the fabric in place. You may need to stick it in at a 45 degree angle to firmly anchor the fabric.

Wrap the fabric round and round the wreath as carefully as you can, overlapping the previous layer and avoiding wrinkles where possible. You may need several pieces to wrap the wreath, it takes more than you expect. If this is the case, end one piece and begin the next on the back of the wreath, holding the ends in place with a pin.

When it is all covered, trim and pin the end of the fabric to the back of the wreath. Beware of pet helpers who cannot resist a dangling ribbon!

Then cut a number of rectangles of fabric, using as many or as few different fabrics as you like. My pieces are 10cm x 4cm (the larger pieces that I cut proved to be too big so I trimmed them down to the same size later).

My wreath is quite small at 7 inches across, so depending on the size of yours, you may want to tweak the dimensions of your rectangles to make sure they do not look out of proportion.

Zig-zag your fabric rectangle as if making a fan and then put a pin through the base and pin it to the wreath. This may take a little practice, but the styrofoam wreaths are very long-suffering! You may want to tweak it when it is pinned on to make the fan look it’s best.

Add further fans, overlapping them a little to help cover the pins and the wreath. I added in loops of ribbon and sequins under the pin to add extra interest.

You can cover the whole wreath in this way, but as mine is small I only covered about a quarter so as not to swamp it. Finally I used a pin to add some lovely felt flowers as a finishing touch, you could use buttons or feathers or any embellishment you fancy.