Yarn Wreath with Rolled Felt Flowers

I have to admit – I am not the most creative crafter, but when I see an idea I like, I can usually put my own little twist on it and come out with a pretty good product (in my own eyes at least).  Currently, I can’t take my eyes off of DIY wreaths.  They are all over the place; paper wreaths, ribbon wreaths, burlap wreaths, you name it.  Then I saw it…YARN WREATHS!  I fell in love and needed to make one myself.

Supplies:

• Wreath Form – Styrofoam or Straw (The straw wreath comes tightly wrapped in a saran wrap type covering so it would be easy to just wrap the yarn over it)
• Yarn – I used Caron One Pound Yarn in Cream
• Felt 
• Hot Glue Gun & Glue
• Floral/Corsage Pins
• Tulle or Ribbon

Directions:

I started out with a 1lb skein of yarn, so I rolled a smaller yarn ball so it would be easier to work with.  To start off, simply tie a double knot around the wreath with the yarn.  Keep the knot on one of the ends of the wreath instead of on the side so you will not see a bump at the end.

Wrap the yarn around the wreath, making sure to keep it tight and even.  This takes awhile – for some reason, I thought the wrapping would be a piece of cake…but I soon realized you actually have to put the yarn ball through the middle of the wreath for each new row in order for it to wrap nicely without getting tangled.  Wrapping this 8” wreath took me almost 2 hours (but I’m also a bit of a perfectionist and was watching one of my fave shows at the same time so who knows maybe you could do it faster?!)

Note: as you go along, try to keep the rows of yarn on the outside and inside part of the wreath even – just push the yarn around to keep it in line.  The inside starts to cover more space and it will be hard for your start and end points to meet nicely at the end if these are not somewhat even.

Once you meet up with your starting point, tie another double knot.  Space out any yarn rows as needed and trim the knot strings.

If you look at your wreath right now, it is nothing but a sad boring circle.  So it’s obviously time to make some beautiful and fun embellishments: rolled felt flowers.

Cut your felt into squares.  Mine all started out as 6” x 6”, but they can come out differently by the way you cut your spirals.  I traced a circle guide because my spirals starting turning out to be squares instead of circles, and let me just tell you those did not turn out pretty!

Cut your felt into circular spirals, using a scalloped technique.  You can give your flowers different looks depending on the size of your scallops, how far apart they are, and how thin each layer is.  

Starting with the outside of the spiral, roll the felt.  Put a dab of hot glue here and there along the way just to keep the flower’s shape and so it won’t unravel.

Hot glue the end of the spiral to the bottom of the flower.

Admire your pretty felt flower:

I was going to hot glue the flowers onto the wreath, but I thought it would be nice to have the option of moving the flowers or changing out the colors at a later time.  I put floral pins through the center of each flower and pinned it into the wreath.  This was great because I actually moved them around a lot and I would have been stuck with my original placement if I would have hot glued them.  Plus, I think the pearl tip adds a pretty touch to each flower.

Loop your tulle or ribbon around and your wreath is ready to hang!  I think these types of wreaths are so pretty and they are super easy to make.

I will also mention that I would suggest using a larger wreath size, like a 10 or 12 inch.  This was an 8 inch and I think it is a bit too small.  A larger one would look nicer on a door and you would be able to add more flowers or other embellishments.