DIY Yarn Wreath

I was browsing through Pinterest and Etsy trying to get inspiration for a fall wreath. I couldn’t decide if I wanted to go with a branch-vine look, leaf-a-palooza, burlap layers, or something simple and understated. Then I saw it! A simple yarn wreath and I knew this was the direction I wanted to go.

I’ve made a yarn wreath before, but used a different wreath base and was not very meticulous with my yarn technique so it looked a little sloppy. This time, I was determined to execute something at a whole ‘notha level. I couldn’t be more pleased with how it turned out.

I gathered my supplies. I knew I wanted a simple yarn wreath with a few felt flowers, a ribbon for hanging, and a few accent pieces. So here’s what I ended up with:

1 round green floral wreath

2 colors of yarn

3 sheets of felt

ribbon for hanging

scissors

glue gun & glue sticks

snippets from the berry garland I used to decorate my front doorway

The great thing about making something from scratch yourself is that you can customize every detail. For instance, I wanted an orange wreath for fall and matching cream flowers with coordinating ribbon. The cream colored yarn I found had light gold threading in it which I loved, so I was able to customize that detail as well.

First – and longest detail – is to wrap the wreath in yarn. With the skinny wreath base, I thought it would look best for the yarn to be perfectly wrapped in order. I started by knotting a piece of yarn and clipping off the excess.

To keep it from sliding around, dab a bit of hot glue to the knot and secure it against the wreath base. Then, simply wrap the yarn around the wreath pulling the yarn snug and pushing the wrapped layers flush against each other every 4-6 wrap arounds. I found the easiest way was to sit with the wreath between my knees off the edge of the couch and wrap the whole ball of yarn around the wreath. I warn you, this part is time consuming but so worth it! Notice how nice the ball of yarn is here at the beginning of this project.

4-6 Hulu shows later (I lost count!) and a little bit of distraction eventually leads to this mess!

I finished that last part up in about 10 minutes, then moved on to the fun part: felt flowers! Simply cut out circles or wavy shapes for your flowers. Then, starting from the outside of the circle, cut in a circular pattern toward the center of the circle. I combined two tutorial ideas – from Design Dump and The Crafted Sparrow - together to come up with my flowers. I cut most of my circles the same “medium size” and cut one smaller circle and one larger circle to have some differentiation in my flowers.

You can see I cut out leaves from the scraps, but later decided not to use them. Here’s a little tip: when working with hot glue, old newspaper is the perfect table cover!