My 200 Billion Kilometers: St. Patrick's Day Wreath

Just when I thought spring might be coming our way, Mother Nature throws us yet another "Snowmageddon". Well, at least that is what the weather men were predicting. And to be clear, this would be a Southern Snowmagedden...which would be equivalent to a normal winter day in my home state of Pennsylvania. Turns out we didn't get nearly as much snow and ice as was being predicted, but it was still enough to turn the roads into a mess, especially given that the state was already running low on salt. The result? A snow day!! And I was glad for it as the highways were not plowed at the time I would have had to leave to go to class.

Ah, what to do on a snow day? I caught up on some work, and then I made a new wreath!

This year, I told myself that I was going to make a new wreath for every holiday and would start being better about decorating for something other than Christmas. Oh, and that I would get up all my Christmas decorations this year...we'll see how that goes. Well, Valentine's Day came and went, and no wreath. Actually, I'm embarrassed to say that my Christmas decorations were still up at that time. Ugh...

I was determined not to miss St. Patrick's Day, so I set aside some time on this unexpected snow day and went to work! Below is a step by step tutorial for the wreath. It took several hours to complete, but I was somewhat making it up as I went, and I had to pause to cook, eat, and watch the Blacklist. In my opinion, BEST show on tv. But I'd better not get off track. Back to the wreath.

I got my inspiration for this wreath from Keep It Simple Sister, but I made quite a few changes to suit my personal style (and the holiday). This is a wreath made completely of felt and a ribbon for hanging. I bought all my supplies at Jo Ann Fabrics, mainly because I had to go there to get felt by the yard. (PS. during this shopping trip, I also bought a doughnut pan, so maybe you will be seeing some of those soon!)

I put the wreath together using hot glue, which is great because I really can't sew. I had to thread the fabric strips to make the ruffles, but that was the extent of the sewing. The wreath and felt flowers were actually pretty easy to make. I had never made felt flowers before, so if you are more up on the crafting trends than I am, this will be even easier for you! Let's start with what you need:

Supplies:

14 inch straw wreath
1 yard of green felt
10 sheets of 9x12 felt (I got 2 sheets each of white and 4 shades of green)
Hot glue gun
Straight pins
Clear thread and sewing needle
1 Spool of Ribbon

Step one: Cut three 5 inch wide strips from your yard of green felt. Use the first two strips to wrap the wreath. Start by hot gluing the felt strip to the back of your wreath. Wrap the felt around the wreath, securing it with hot glue every few turns. Trim the felt strip if needed to ensure that it also ends on the back of the wreath, and secure it with hot glue. Repeat with the second strip of felt.

Step two: Take your ribbon and tie it in a hitch knot around the wreath at the point that will be your top. Leave the ribbon long until you decide how you want to hang it.

Step three: Cut the third 5 inch strip of felt in half so that you have two 5 inch strips. Thread these two felt strips with the clear thread about 1/4 inch from the bottom. Pull the thread to ruffle the two strips.

Step four: Place the two ruffles on the back of the wreath with the threaded ends close to the middle of the wreath, using straight pins to secure them. Make sure you cannot see the edges of the ruffle on the inside of the wreath. Once you have the ruffles placed where you want them, use the hot glue gun to glue them to the back of the wreath.

Step five: Cut two 2 1/2 inch strips of felt from the yard of green felt. Cut these two strips in half to make four (you will only need 3 of them). Thread three of the strips with the clear thread. Pull the thread to ruffle, making them more ruffled than the larger strips.

Step six: Pull back the first layer of ruffles, and hot glue the smaller ruffles to the wreath in front of and right above the first layer.

Step seven: Make your felt flowers. I found these tutorials helpful:

Eighteen25
The Crafted Sparrow

Step eight: Arrange your felt flowers on the wreath and hot glue them into place.