Yoyo wreath

Last summer I rescued this bag of yoyos at a used fabric sale.

The price was right

I came across it again when I broke out my scrap fabric bin determined to do some sewing. I cut some pieces. did a seam or two, but was not feeling the love. Still, I was determined to do something with fabric so I pulled out this bag to see what was in there.

Once I finally got a look, I realized these would not be something I could build on. They were all sorts of odd fabrics–polyesters and nylons, a few cottons–and the person who had sewn them did not cinch them as tightly as I like leaving  large holes in the centers. I figured I could still use them for something, and put together this wreath.

It is just secured with straight pins for now. Once it comes off the door, I may disassemble it, but it did satisfy my need to make something with fabric, and use something in my stash.

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TAD 19: Felted wool wreath

When I was in high school, I bought myself a red cape made from wool sweater material. I think I thought it would be dramatic or mysterious or funky in the way an angsty teenager might want. Through the years, it has gotten very, very moth eaten.  When it got too many holes to even consider using, I put it through the washing machine to felt it.

I’ve used larger pieces of it for other projects. It was a nice base for some dry-needle felting, but eventually it hit the point where there weren’t any areas of it that did not resemble swiss cheese. I’ve been trying to make more of an effort to use up the things I have had for a long time. By cutting the remaining parts of material into squares, I was able to get enough to make a wreath out of them.

The moth holes do not matter as much with this since it is the edges that show, and I can decorate this next year either for Christmas or for Valentine’s Day.

This was made using a metal clothes hanger, and it was easy enough to push it through the squares of felt.

 

TAD 8: Peeps wreath

At the beginning of the year, I printed out one of those lists of 101 things you can get rid of in an attempt to get some focus on going through all the stuff that seems to have collected around here. It has made it much more manageable. Rather than looking at an entire room, I can focus on one type of item, like purses I no longer use, or VHS tapes we no longer have a way to play.

The stuffed chicks and bunnies went onto the donate pile. Then they came back out. I had the wreath form already covered with faux fur yarn from an old project that had been dismantled, and had been looking for a new use for it.

The chicks and bunnies are based on candies called peeps that are sold around Easter. They are marshmallow, covered with colored sugar and there is always a big debate about whether they are better eaten fresh, or allowed to get stale. These plush versions should stay fresh for a long while, and no one will be tempted to nibble on the wreath.

Winter wreath finished

I made the bulk of this wreath back in September. It got set aside with the plan to add a few embellishments and didn’t have them so I figured I’d wait for a good sale and pick them up.

I ended up getting two picks of the balls and curly things and deconstructing them to use.  Until this week, it has been unseasonably warn here, so even though the Christmas decorations came down, the door remained bare.  It may have come late, but winter weather has arrived now, and so the wreath has been completed and hung.

December 6, 2015: Fabric poke wreath

Today’s project was a result of my search for materials for a different project altogether.  I started graphing out a quilt block of a Christmas tree. When I grabbed my bin of Christmas fabric and began going through it, I saw a bag of precut squares given to me over 20 years ago by a friend who used to make these wreaths and then decided to stop.

It is sort of a funny name for a wreath, but it is made by poking fabric squares into a wreath form.  I used a 10 inch Styrofoam form because that is what I had in my stash but a lot of the tutorials call for straw wreaths.

You can google “fabric square wreaths” and get all sorts of tutorials, but the easiest explanation is to cut the squares with pinking shears (the ones I had were 3-ish inches), gather them around your poking tool (I used a chopstick, but you can use a pen or a screwdriver), put a dab of glue on the end (optional, but I figured it wouldn’t hurt. I used hot glue.) Poke the squares into the wreath form approximately one per inch apart, and continue until the wreath is covered. The fabric is gathered up so the right side is on the inside.

I made a round on the top, one on the inside, and one on the outside then filled in any spots that looks sparse with the remaining squares.  The 10 inch form used about 90 squares to complete. I used four different fabrics because that is what I had, but these could be done in any variety of colors. Because it is fabric, this should probably be an indoor wreath.

 

November 4, 2014: Snowman wreath

It turns out I did not need 24 pom poms after all. Once I realized the hoop I had for this project was smaller than what the instructions listed, I was able to stop at 16.

I was tempted to stop after making all the little white balls, but decided to plow through in order to have it done. I used this tutorial from A Crocheted Simplicity Designs, although I had to make a couple of adaptations based on my supplies. I only had one size of the pom pom maker, so the heads and the bodies are the same size, and I used a smaller hoop so had only 8 snowmen instead of 11.  I also realized after I had started attaching the eyes that I put the eyes on the outside and the buttons on the inside, which is it the opposite of the instructions. A bit of fall out from not having smaller heads.

When I was almost done, I could not find my single hole punch, so I was using a 3-hole punch to make the eyes out of black craft foam. My husband walked through the room and asked what I was doing. When I said “making snowman eyes,” he just nodded and kept right on with what he was doing. It made me laugh that he found this an acceptable task and didn’t even question it.

October 8, 2015: Halloween decoration

I love Halloween. I love the costume parties. I love giving out candy and visiting with all the neighbors. I love eating leftover candy. One odd thing is that I never decorate for it. I do put out a pumpkin or several, but I don’t deck the halls with spiderwebs or creepy ghosts.

In the spirit of finishing what I started, I took the giant candy corn I made, deconstructed a Halloween plant decoration from the craft store, and made a simple door hanging. One good thing about procrastination is that the Halloween decorations are all 50% off at Jo-Ann’s now, and I had a 20% off your entire purchase coupon to boot. This may be my only decoration, or I may have unleashed a Halloween decorating monster.

October 1, 2015: I’m calling it done

Well, I think that final play may have worked. While this is not what I was picturing as the final outcome when I first started thinking about making a sunflower wreath, I’m calling it a workable fix.

Even the final step was not without a stumble. I attached the strip of solid crochet around the back side of the petals and ended up with this.

It still didn’t look right. The ratio of yellow to brown was what I wanted, but the yarn was not firm enough to hold itself up and flopped over. I may have Frisbee-tossed the blasted thing into my craft room determined not to put any more time into it.  After this third and tiny time out, one last idea hit. Folding the strip over created enough stiffness to provide the outside ring the support it needed. While it could be a bit wider, it looks sunflowery enough.

I’m giving this a check mark on the done list, and moving on.

September 8, 2015: Winter wreath begun

It seems I have been in flower-making mode lately. I finally got time to actually make some flowers and then begin making them into something. This is the start of a winter wreath. Something to handg on the door when the Christmas decorations come down. I still need to pick up some embellishments, maybe add a leaf or two, but I like the way it is starting to look.

I made a quick trip to the craft store for the felt since I had a $5 off $15 coupon. The felt was under $5, but I was able to pick up some yarn and crochet hooks to make up the difference. 🙂  I have certain hook sizes that I use a lot, and they also wander off a lot.  I’m trying to learn to keep the hook with the project, so having duplicates of the common sizes is becoming a necessity. I also almost always buy Boye hooks ever since I learned that gauge can be different between the same size of a Bates and a Boye due to the thickness of the neck and handle of the two hooks. This way, if I do lose a hook mid-project, it should not cause any problems.

It felt funny working on something for winter when it is still very much summer weather here. But somehow working with the cool colors was a nice change. I still can’t bring myself to start Christmas crafting though.

August 19, 2015: When life hands you ribbons

This past weekend, a friend handed me two long rolls of strips of fabric that had been used at her son’s wedding and asked ‘could you use these for something?” Each roll had five fabric strips and was about 30 feet long.  Usually when I am gifted craft supplies, I try to make something to give back to the person who was kind enough to pass them along.

I figured, before these get buried in a pile of stuff, or tucked away into a container, I’d use part of them to make her a wreath. Although I have several other projects in the works, sometimes a new project that can be completed in no time at all is just what I need. The fabric was cut into 10 inch strips and tied around a ring using a a larks head or cow hitch knot.

I only used about a quarter of what she gave me so now I just need to figure out what I can make out of the rest of the fabric.