St. Patrick's Day Wreath Tutorial

I love celebrating the holidays, even the "little" ones.  Even St. Patrick's Day.  Even though I'm not Irish.  For me it's just more about celebrating life in general.

So I'll be taking down all the Valentine's Day decor this weekend and replacing it with my few St. Patrick's Day decorations.  The husband/lover/driver made some taunts about being willing to drive me to the nearest Hobby Lobby today, so we will see what abundance of green things may be added to the current tiny collection.

In anticipation of this next holiday, about a week ago I put together this wreath for my front door.  I've seen many rag wreaths over the years and I have always told myself that I will make one, "one of these days."  So I did.  And I am so pleased with the way it turned out, that I thought I'd share with you how it's done.

First you will want to gather up your supplies, and there are only a few items to accumulate:

a metal hanger
a pliers and a scissors
a number of green fabrics
one yard of ribbon
one large paper clip

For my wreath I found 9 green fabrics at my local Wal-mart and bought 6 inches of each (1/6 yard of each).  A few of them had shamrocks and St. Patrick's type stuff on them but most did not.

First I got the husband/lover/craftsman to bend my metal hanger into a circle.  He kind of wound the two ends around each other.  You don't have to be fussy about this because none of it will show when the wreath is finished.  Just make a good circle about 12 inches in diameter.

Next you will want to cut your fabrics into 1 inch by 6 inch strips.  I stacked them up into small piles because I decided to tie my strips in an order rather than randomly.  I am anal like that, I suppose.  You can add the strips to the hanger in whatever order you choose.

Start tying the strips onto the hanger, one at a time.  Just a tight loop is all that is needed.  Then keep shoving them tight together as you work.

Do not leave any spaces.  I think the wreath will look best if it is very fluffily filled with cloth strips.  Is that a word?

I tried to keep a rough count of how many strips my wreath took, and I may have lost count, but I believe I used about 250 pieces.  The nine six inch pieces of fabric I purchased worked out just about right, without leaving much waste at the end.

Once the wire is full, just tie a bow at the bottom. Or at the side.  Or at the top.  Or at the bottom right, or left.  Whatever you like.  I put mine at the bottom.

I used the large paper clip to make a hanging hook at the top of the wreath. Just twist it so it goes around the hanger and has a loop for hanging.  I used a large green paper clip, not realizing that none of it would show when finished anyway.  Just use what ya got.

And voila!  Here is my finished St. Patrick's Day wreath.  No sewing, no glueing, just easy peasy arts and crafts.  If you can use a pliers and a scissors, you can do this.

I love doing crafts that are fairly easy and that can be finished in a reasonable amount of time with a minimal amount of stress.  And, that look decent when done.

I suppose you could adapt the fabric colors and motifs to be appropriate for any of the holidays, too.

So try it, you'll like it.

I'm off now.  Gotta do some green shopping.