A Year of Wreaths: May Felt Foxgloves Wreath Tutorial

When I think of May, I always think of flowers and especially of foxgloves. They are such beautiful, striking flowers and it was a lot of fun designing a felt version for this month’s tutorial...

The felt foxgloves will take you a bit of time to make, but they don’t need any advanced sewing skills just some patience. I hope you’ll agree that the end result is worth it!

Don't have anywhere to hang a wreath? Instead you you could mount the foxgloves on some card and frame them in a box frame to make some lovely floral wall art.

This tutorial originally appeared on The Village Haberdashery's blog - visit their shop for lots of crafty goodness! I'm sharing all twelve seasonal wreath tutorials here on my blog as the year progresses.

You will need:

The template sheet provided (click here to view, download and print the PDF)
A 30cm polystyrene ring wreath base
Bright pink, light pink, and spring green felt
Sewing thread to match the feltcolours
Two paper covered floral wires (or other sturdy craft wire)
Sewing scissors
Embroidery scissors
Sewing needles and pins
A black permanent marker pen
A glue gun and glue
A heat-proof mat for the glue gun
Newspaper to protect your workspace from any glue drips
A small amount of toy stuffing
An orange stick or other narrow tool for adding the stuffing

To make the wreath:

1. Use the template provided to cut the felt strips for wrapping the wreath: cut eight strips from each felt colour.

2. Lay the strips on top of the wreath in colour order (bright pink, light pink, spring green), overlapping them slightly so that none of the polystyrene ring base will show through at the edges of the wreath. When you’ve added all the pieces and are happy with the arrangement, insert pins to hold the felt in position then turn the wreath over. One by one, wrap the felt pieces around the wreath inserting pins to hold the felt in place.

The back of your wreath will now look something like this:

3. Use a glue gun to secure the ends of the felt at the back of the wreath. Work on one piece of felt at a time, removing the pin(s) holding it in place and folding the felt back slightly. Carefully add a dab or two of hot glue to the wreath base then very carefully press the felt down into position.

IMPORTANT: take care when working with the glue gun as the glue gets very hot! Always place it on a heat-proof mat when not in use, and use newspaper or other scrap paper to protect your workspace. Work slowly, squeezing the gun with care to control the amount of glue you’re using and keeping your fingers out of the way of the hot glue.

Tip: you may find it helpful to test glue a couple of scrap pieces of felt before you start, so you can see how much glue you need to use to hold each piece in place.

Once the glue has dried, turn the wreath over and remove the pins from the front. The front of your wreath will now look something like this:

4. Use the templates provided to cut out the foxglove pieces. Cut six buds, nine large flowers and three small flowers from bright pink felt. Cut six buds and nine small flowers from light pink felt. Then cut 27 caps from spring green felt.

Tip: embroidery scissors are perfect for cutting out small felt shapes!

5. Add a random pattern of dots to all the flower pieces (the large and small pink pieces, but not the pink buds) using a black permanent marker pen. Test out the pen on a piece of scrap felt before you start decorating the flowers. The ink may soak through the felt, so place a piece of paper under the flowers as you work to protect your table.

6. Now it’s time to start sewing the flowers. Each small and large flower is sewn the same way, using matching sewing threads.

Begin by folding the flower so that the dots are on the outside, as shown. Sew along the straight edge with whip stitch in matching pink sewing thread. Start at the top and work down, leaving large gaps between the stitches.

Then sew back up again, sewing between the gaps and finishing your stitching at the top. Take care not to sew your stitches too tightly!

Then carefully turn the flower the right side out, flattening the seam to make a trumpet-like flower shape.

7. Thread your needle with green sewing thread, and pass it up through the centre of one of the green cap pieces. Place the cap over the hole at the top end of the flower (so the knot is underneath the cap).

Sew down through the centre of the cap, then up through the flower and cap as shown below.

Make a small stitch holding the “leaf” of the cap in place, then pass the needle back up through the centre of the cap.

Repeat this process for the other three “leaves” of the cap, sewing it in place around the end of the flower. You will need to pinch the end of the flower slightly (especially with the small flowers) to get the cap to fit neatly around it. Finish your stitching neatly at the top of the cap.

8. To sew the buds, use whip stitch and matching sewing thread to join two bud pieces together. Begin sewing from the top, stuffing the shape with small pieces of toy stuffing as you sew up the second side.

Tip: Adding the toy stuffing can be a bit fiddly as the buds are quite small. Use something narrow like an orange stick (the ones used for manicures) to poke the stuffing into the bud.  

Once you’ve sewn and stuffed each bud, add a cap piece to the top following the same method as in step 7.

9. When all the flowers and buds are finished, use the stalk templates to cut two stalk pieces from green felt: one long and one short.

Fold the long stalk piece in half and join the edges with whip stitch and matching green sewing thread, leaving one end unstitched as shown. Bend one of the floral wires, folding it in half. Insert the wire into the stalk and sew up the bottom edge with more whip stitches.

Repeat this process to make the short stalk, this time folding the wire in thirds.

10. Time to attach the flowers and buds to the stalks! This can be a bit fiddly, so take your time and do your best to keep the front of the foxgloves free from glue. Before you glue each piece, position it and look at the points of contact – i.e. where the piece you’re adding will touch what you’re gluing it to. Then remove the piece and add glue to those points, either on the piece you’re adding or where you’re attaching it (whichever is easiest at the time!).

Start by arranging the central flowers along the stalk, as pictured. For the large foxglove add three large flowers then a small flower on top. For the small foxglove, add three small flowers. Glue the flowers in position one by one, working upwards.

Then add the other two flowers in each row.

Finally, add the three buds to the top of the foxglove.

The finished foxgloves should look something like this:

11. Once the foxgloves have fully dried, position them on the wreath. When you’re happy with their placement, use the glue gun to attach them – adding a dab of glue at the top and bottom of the stalk where it will touch the wreath.

Hang the finished wreath with a matching piece of yarn or ribbon, or directly from a hook or nail. 

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This tutorial is for non commercial use only: you can use it to make as many wreaths as you want for yourself or as gifts, but please don't make any for sale. You may borrow a couple of photos if you want to blog about this project, but remember to credit me and link back to this page on my blog, and do not reproduce my entire tutorial / share my templates on your site. Thanks!

A Year of Wreaths: April Felt Flowers Wreath Tutorial

This month’s wreath is all about bright and zingy spring colours! The layered felt flowers and embroidered green leaves really pop against a wreath base wrapped in neutral linen-blend fabric.

You could easily adapt this design by adding more flowers and leaves, or by using different shades of wool blend felt to change the mood of the wreath. The individual felt flowers would also make great brooches or hairclips.

This tutorial originally appeared on The Village Haberdashery's blog - visit their shop for lots of crafty goodness! I'll be sharing all twelve seasonal wreath tutorials here on my blog as the year progresses.

You will need:

The template sheet provided (click here to view, download and print the PDF)
A 30cm polystyrene ring wreath base
Half a metre of linen-blend fabric (I used Robert Kaufman Essex Yarn Dyed fabric in Flax) or other fabric of your choice
Green felt for the leaves
Orange, pink, and purple felt for the flowers (or three shades of your choice)
Embroidery thread to match the flower colours
Sewing scissors
Embroidery scissors
Sewing needle and pins
A glue gun and glue
A heat-proof mat for the glue gun
Newspaper to protect your workspace from any glue drips
Optional: a piece of twine or co-ordinating ribbon for hanging the wreath

To make the wreath:

1. Use the templates provided to cut out the flower and leaf pieces from wool blend felt in orange, pink, purple, and green.

Cut the flower pieces in the following colours and quantities:

Flower A: 1 x orange, 2 x purple.
Flower B: 1 x pink, 1 x orange.
Flower C: 1 x orange, 2 x pink, 2 x purple.
Flower D: 1 x orange, 1 x pink.
Circle E: 1 x orange, 1 x pink, 1 x purple.
Circle F: 2 x purple.
Circle G: 3 x purple, 1 x orange, 1 x pink.
Circle H: 1 x orange, 1 x pink.

Layer the pieces to assemble seven flowers, using the photos as a guide. Then cut out 24  green leaves: 12 large and 12 small.

Tip: embroidery scissors are perfect for cutting out fiddly felt shapes!

2. Embroider the leaves with half strands of embroidery thread (i.e. for six-stranded embroidery thread, just use three strands). Use three shades of embroidery thread to match the felt flowers (orange, pink and purple), and decorate a third of the leaves with each colour (so, four large and four small leaves for each shade).

Sew a line of stitching down the centre of each leaf, finishing your stitching neatly at the back and trimming any excess threads. Use backstitch or sew a line of running stitches then sew back in the opposite direction to fill the gaps and create a continuous line of stitches.

3. Sew the flowers together with contrasting embroidery thread, as shown. Use half strands of thread, sewing radiating stitches from the centre of each flower. I stitched nine stitches for each of the the larger flowers, and six for the smaller flowers.

Tip: use the position of the flower petals as a guide when spacing your stitches.

4. Use the template provided to cut out 25 pieces from your chose fabric fabric for wrapping the wreath base. You may need to cut a few more strips later to finish wrapping the wreath, but it’s better to cut fewer strips to start with than end up wasting fabric!

5. Add the fabric strips to the wreath base one by one, using a glue gun to secure the ends at the back of the wreath. Overlap the fabric strips so there are no gaps where the polystyrene base can show through. For each fabric strip, add a dab or two of hot glue to the back of the wreath then carefully press the fabric into position.

If required use the template to cut more fabric strips, adding them until the whole base is covered in fabric.

IMPORTANT: take care when working with the glue gun as the glue gets very hot! Always place it on a heat-proof mat when not in use, and use newspaper or other scrap paper to protect your workspace. Work slowly, squeezing the gun with care to control the amount of glue you’re using and keeping your fingers out of the way of the hot glue.

The wreath base will now look something like this:

6. Arrange the felt leaves on the wreath as pictured, covering up the section where you started and finished wrapping the wreath. Start with six small leaves in the centre then add three pairs of large leaves either side, and then a trio of small leaves at each end of the arrangement. Alternate the thread colours, so you get a nice mix of the three shades across the leaves.

Pin the leaves in position with one pin towards the bottom end of each leaf. Place the flowers on top to check that you’re happy with the final arrangement, make any adjustments needed then set the flowers aside.

7. Use the glue gun to attach the leaves to the wreath. Work inwards, holding a leaf back and applying a small dab of glue to the wreath then lightly pressing the outer / top half of the leaf down so it sticks in place. Then remove the pin from the bottom of the leaf and glue the lower half.

When you reach the central cluster of leaves, glue all the outer / top halves of the leaves then remove the central pins and glue the inner / bottom halves of the leaves one by one.

With the leaves glued in place, the wreath will now look like this:

8. Position the flowers on top of the leaves so they overlap as shown, then use the glue gun to glue them in place.

9. If needed, cut a length of twine or co-ordinating ribbon and knot it securely around the top of the wreath. Use this to hang the wreath in your chosen spot, or just hang the wreath directly onto a hook or nail.


Enjoyed this free tutorial? Buy me a "coffee" and help support my blog!


P.S. Subscribe to my newsletter for a monthly free pattern and visit my crafty tutorial archive for lots more free projects.

This tutorial is for non commercial use only: you can use it to make as many wreaths as you want for yourself or as gifts, but please don't make any for sale. You may borrow a couple of photos if you want to blog about this project, but remember to credit me and link back to this page on my blog, and do not reproduce my entire tutorial / share my templates on your site. Thanks!

A Year of Wreaths: March Felt Daffodils Wreath Tutorial

This month’s wreath is all about joyful spring colour: fresh spring green yarn paired with bright felt daffodils and narcissi.

Just like real daffofils, the felt version will add a vibrant pop of cheerful colour to wherever you hang this wreath!

As well as making a wreath decorated with felt flowers, you could adapt this tutorial to make floral brooches or headbands, or add stems to the flowers to create a felt bouquet.

This tutorial originally appeared on The Village Haberdashery's blog - visit their shop for lots of crafty goodness! I'm sharing all twelve seasonal wreath tutorials here on my blog as the year progresses.

You will need:

The template sheet provided (click here to view, download and print the PDF)
A 30cm polystyrene ring wreath base
Yellow, white, and orange felt
Orange and yellow sewing thread
Orange and yellow stranded embroidery thread
Spring green yarn (I used one skein of Malabrigo Merino Worsted in Lettuce)
Sewing scissors
Pinking shears
Sewing needles and pins
A glue gun and glue
A heat-proof mat for the glue gun
Newspaper to protect your workspace from any glue drips

To make the wreath:

1. Decorate the wreath base with your chosen yarn. Secure the yarn with a knot at what will become the back of your wreath. Begin wrapping the yarn around the wreath base, passing the ball of yarn through the hole in the centre of the wreath as you wrap the yarn around the outside.  Hide the loose yarn end under the yarn as you wrap, and make sure that you’re not leaving any gaps where the white wreath base shows through. Continue wrapping, gradually covering the whole of the wreath base.

Wrapping the wreath takes a while, so I highly recommend wrapping your wreath while watching a film or some episodes of your favourite TV show. 

Once the whole wreath base has been covered with yarn, tie a knot securely at the back and carefully trim the loose end so it won’t be visible when the wreath is hung up.

2. Use the templates provided to cut out the felt pieces for each of the flowers. To make the exact wreath pictured you will need five daffodils and seven narcissi. For each flower, cut two petal pieces, one trumpet piece and one circle from the appropriate colours (yellow for the daffodils, orange and white for the narcissi).

When you cut each trumpet cut along three sides of the template with sewing scissors and along the remaining (long) side with pinking shears - just above the edge of the paper template. If you don’t have any pinking shears you could use embroidery scissors to cut a zigzagged edge, or just cut a straight edge.

3. Add some embroidery to each felt circle. Cut a length of embroidery thread to match the felt, and separate half the strands (so for six-stranded thread use three strands). Use the embroidery thread to sew single stitches radiating from the centre of each circle, as shown. Sew seven or eight stitches for the daffodils, and five or six stitches for the narcissi.

4. Join the trumpet and circle pieces together with whip stitch and matching sewing thread. Make sure that the embroidered side of the felt circle will be visible inside the finished trumpet and that the knot of your thread will be hidden underneath it.

Sew the long straight edge of the trumpet piece to the edge of the circle, then trim any excess felt from the trumpet piece. Sew up the side seam of the trumpet with more whip stitches, then back down the seam to finish your stitching neatly underneath.

Repeat for all the trumpets.

5. Sew the petal pieces together. Position the pairs of petals on top of each other, as pictured, and secure each of them with a couple of stitches of sewing thread. You can use matching thread for this if you want but as long as the stitches are small and in the centre of the petals they’ll be hidden on the finished flower.

Tip: if you want to use this tutorial to make flower brooches, etc., now’s the time to sew the trumpet to the petals. Whip stitch in matching sewing thread would work well. If you’re making the wreath leave the pieces unattached (you’ll be gluing them in position later). 

You should now have lots of flowers ready to add to your wreath.

6. Arrange the flowers on the wreath base and pin them in position. You can use the photo as a guide, or create your own arrangement.

7. Use a glue gun to attach the flowers to the wreath. Think about the order you’re going to glue the flowers before you begin – remember that if two flowers overlap each other you’ll need to glue the bottom flower to the wreath base then attach the top flower.

One by one, remove the pins holding the flowers in place and secure them with a few dabs of hot glue. To attach the petals, add some glue to the wreath base then very carefully press the felt petals down into position on top. To attach each trumpet, add a dab of glue directly to the bottom of the trumpet then place it in the centre of the flower and use your finger (or the unsharpened end of a pencil) to carefully press the trumpet in position.

IMPORTANT: take care when working with the glue gun as the glue gets very hot! Always place it on a heat-proof mat when not in use, and use newspaper or other scrap paper to protect your workspace. Work slowly, squeezing the gun with care to control the amount of glue you’re using and keeping your fingers out of the way of the hot glue.

Tip: you may find it helpful to test glue a couple of scrap pieces of felt before you start, so you can see how much glue you need to use to hold each piece in place.

8. Your wreath is now finished! Add a length of yarn or co-ordinating ribbon for hanging the wreath, or hang it directly from a hook or nail.


Enjoyed this free tutorial? Buy me a "coffee" and help support my blog!


P.S. Subscribe to my newsletter for a monthly free pattern and visit my crafty tutorial archive for lots more free projects.

This tutorial is for non commercial use only: you can use it to make as many wreaths as you want for yourself or as gifts, but please don't make any for sale. You may borrow a couple of photos if you want to blog about this project, but remember to credit me and link back to this page on my blog, and do not reproduce my entire tutorial / share my templates on your site. Thanks!

DIY Upcycled Sewing Thread Reels Wreath

Today I'm sharing a tutorial for making a fun crafty wreath from your old empty reels of sewing thread!

 

ADVERTISEMENT: This tutorial is sponsored by Bostik, and is part of a series of crafty projects I'm sharing to promote their range of adhesives. Click here to see all the posts in the series!

I'm never sure quite what to do with my leftover thread spools - they don't really have an obvious purpose but I still can't quite bring myself to throw them away. "I'm sure these will be useful for something" I think to myself, sticking them in a box of craft supplies... and then never actually doing anything with them. I bet you guys have a bunch of stuff you keep like this, too, right?? You just never know when stuff might come in useful for crafting!

So, when the team at Bostik asked me to come up with a project to try out their new Fix & Flash glue I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to get out my stash of empty spools and actually make something with them.

 

Making this wreath I also got to use up a bunch of scrappy bits of leftover yarn I'd been saving for ages AND I saved a bit of cash by making my own wreath base from a cardboard box instead of buying one. Essentially I felt like a crafty upcycling genius working on this project.

Tip: if you don't have any empty thread reels but like idea of making one of these wreaths for your craft room, you could also make this project using a box of cheap sewing threads or those thread colours in your stash that you somehow have loads of but never actually sew with.

You will need:

- Bostik Fix & Flash (which I'm reliably informed is available at Hobbycraft) or other suitable strong glue
- Empty sewing thread reels
- A wreath base or a large piece of sturdy card (e.g. from a big cardboard box)
- Yarn for wrapping the wreath
- Leftover bits of yarn in assorted colours (or bits of felt, fabric or coloured paper)
- A sewing needle with a large eye
- Sewing scissors

If you're making your wreath base from card instead of using a shop-bought one you'll also need sturdy craft scissors, a pencil, and things to help you draw the wreath shape (I used a compass, a ruler and a large dinner plate). You will also need some PVA or other craft glue if you're decorating your reels with felt, paper or fabric.

To make the wreath:

1. If you're making your own wreath base (instead of just buying one from a shop), you'll need to cut a large ring shape out of sturdy cardboard.

I used a large dinner plate (approx 26 cm wide) for the outer circle, drawing around it with a sharp pencil. I then used a ruler to find the rough centre point of the large circle, and used a compass to draw the inner circle (approx 12.5 cm wide) around that central point.

It doesn't matter exactly what size wreath base you make or use, just ensure you've got enough space to add all your sewing thread reels!

 

2. Use some brightly coloured yarn to wrap your wreath base. Knot the end of the yarn around the ring shape, tying it securely so the knot will be at the back of your finished wreath. Then gradually wrap the whole of the wreath with yarn until the shape is evenly covered and there are no gaps for the base to peek through. When you're happy with how it looks, cut the yarn end and knot it securely at the back of the wreath.

This step is quite time consuming, but it's a lovely relaxing task to do on the sofa in the evening while watching a bit of telly!

3. Now it's time to decorate your empty thread reels. Leftover bits of yarn are perfect for this, but you could also use pieces of felt or even colourful paper or fabric to wrap around the empty spools - just cut the colourful scraps to size and glue them in place with the appropriate craft glue.

When choosing colours you could stick to a strict colour palette for your reels, create a riot of different colours, or even create a rainbow effect across the wreath. I had lots of bits of leftover yarn in pink and other warm tones, so I chose a selection of those.

Tip: if you want a rainbow or another sweep of colour across the wreath, plan ahead and work out how you're going to position the reels before you start adding colour to them so you know which reels to add which colours to. I'd recommend using a large piece of paper and a pencil to mark out the positions of each reel, which you can then refer to as a guide when attaching them to the wreath. 

Wrap each empty reel with some leftover yarn, knotting the ends securely and trimming them neatly. Make sure both knots are on the same side of the reel, so you can hide them when you stick the reels in position! I hid the first end of my yarn under the rest as I wrapped it around the reel and used a sewing needle to help me loop the second end into the rest of the yarn to secure it.

4. Once you've decorated all your spools, it's time to get out the glue and add them to your yarn-wrapped wreath base. I'd usually use a glue gun when sticking stuff onto wreaths but I often find glue guns quite awkward to work with and occasionally a bit messy (all those trailing strands of glue! and great squidges of glue that squeeze out from behind the thing you've just stuck in place!)... so I was really interested to try Bostik's new Fix & Flash glue.

It turns out that using this stuff is half like being in a sci-fi film set in the future, and half like pretending to be a wizard because the glue sets like magic with a beam of light!

First use the fine nozzle to apply the clear glue to the back of one of the sewing reels, where it'll touch the wreath base. I'd definitely recommend test glueing something to start with as I managed to splurge glue everywhere as it was much more liquidy than I'd been expecting. Carefully position the reel and press it in place for a few seconds to create the initial hold.

Then use the UV bulb at the other end to shine a beam of light for fifteen seconds onto the edges of where you've glued. And that's it! The glue has set.

Make sure you follow the safety instructions when using the Fix & Flash (both the glue and the UV light), and gradually add all the reels to your wreath base. I set a little timer on my phone for 17 seconds so I could just tap that and easily time the amount of light needed. 

I will confess that I managed to get a bit of glue on my fingers when working on this project (oops) because I am quite clumsy and really ought to always wear latex gloves when using strong glue (because of the aforementioned clumsiness) but otherwise I was really pleased with how easy this stuff was to use. I definitely felt like I had more control over it than using a glue gun, and you can use Fix & Flash to glue loads of different materials.

I would never have tried this without Bostik asking me to create this tutorial, but I'm glad I did as I think this will be a really useful addition to my craft supplies stash!

Once you've added all the reels to your wreath it should look something like this:

Hang the wreath from a hook or nail using more of the same yarn you used to wrap the wreath base earlier.

DISCLOSURE: this post is sponsored by Bostik, who also provided the Fix & Flash I used to make the wreath. 

P.S. Fancy some more free crafty goodness? Subscribe to my newsletter for a monthly free pattern and visit my crafty tutorial archive for lots more free projects.