Have you seen the price of ready-made wreaths lately? $100 and up! Considering we have double doors and need to have double wreaths, I decided to make them myself.
And it wasn't hard. I went to Hobby Lobby when they had 50% off their Christmas stuff and bought the materials which consisted of:
1. a ready-made swag
2. a roll of 6" mesh ribbon (30' long. Plenty for more than two wreaths.)
3. a roll of contrasting 21" mesh ribbon (30' long. This is enough for two wreaths.)
4. very thin, bendable wire
The swag I found was naturally vertical, but I made autumn wreaths using horizontal swags, bending them into a straight line, and hanging them vertically. (see photo at bottom of blog.) So find a swag you like and improvise.
The star of these wreaths is the wide mesh ribbon. It was also 50% off.
To make the 21" wide ribbon into a huge bow, I folded it in on itself and sewed down the middle to hold it. Do not use tape (as you see I did at the left, using masking tape to hold it) as taking the tape off will rip the ribbon! And leaving the tape on there makes it too stiff to gather at the center of the bow.
Learn from my mistake and sew it by machine or even by hand, using a running stitch.
Gather up the bow at the middle and wrap thin wire around it, twisting the wire ends. I LOVE this wire. It's so easy to use.
Then make another smaller bow with the 6" mesh. You don't need to sew this bow as being less wide, it's manageable as is. When it's created, wire it on top of the big bow.
To make the hangy-down parts of the bows, let the ribbon (which has been on rolls) do it's own thing!
Cut to the length you want and wire it to the center of the bows. I just left it in one long length, folded in half at the top, but you can cut it into two if it works better for you.
Attach the ready-made swag into the of center of the bows with wire. Voila! These Christmas wreaths cost me about $40 each. And they're huge. The one for autumn was only $25.
So whether you need a wreath for spring, summer, fall, or the holidays, buy these four materials and in 30 minutes you're done!
