Burlap Fall Wreath Tutorial

Remember that first post (here) when I talked about the fall wreath I was creating and going to do a tutorial on it? Well it was super cute and I was very excited about it when I got done and it looked like this:

Of course less than a week later it looked like this:

Obviously I need to figure out a better method for this style of wreath. Anyway, I kept my pitiful wreath up for September because I had nothing to replace it with. Then it came down to be replaced by a skeleton for Halloween, so my door currently looks like this:

The other night, I realized that this month is flying by and I’ll need to replace my skeleton come November…So I decided to repurpose my wreath into a new wreath. This is a super easy wrapped wreath, like the Mercy Wreath, and obviously can be made from scratch, without going through the “ugly wreath phase.”

What you’ll need:
½ - ¾ yard each of two different burlap colors

1 Fat quarter of a fabric you like (or scraps, because you’ll only use about ½ the fat quarter)

1 wreath form

Hot glue gun (not pictured)

Assembly:

Cut All Pieces

Cut burlap into 2 ½ inch by WOF (width of fabric) strips and two 2 ½” x WOF strips from fabric. Also cut six 2 ½” diameter (approximately, feel free to eye ball this) circles from fabric. Decide which burlap color will be for your base and which will be for flowers. Sub cut two of the flower burlap strips into 2 ½” x 2 ½” squares until you have 26 squares for flowers. Sub cut one of the base strips into 8 squares (2 ½ x 2 ½) as well.

**TIP - Here’s a neat trick for cutting burlap straight: 

Measure how wide you want the strip to be at one edge of fabric. Cut a small snip about ¼ inch into the fabric.

Then pull one burlap strand all the way out.

You’ll then have a “gap” to cut along, giving you a straight strip the same width all the way up.

I did this with the red burlap when I created the “ugly wreath”, but was in a hurry for this wreath so I didn’t do it with the tan burlap. It still turned out fine for this project so don’t feel like you have to do this method with this particular wreath.**

Wrap Wreath Form

Wrap the wreath form with the strips of base burlap. Be sure to glue only at the back of the wreath form, attaching at the start of the strip with glue, wrapping tightly with some overlap, and attaching at the end of the strip with glue. If the end of your strip won’t make it all the way to the back of the wreath, go to where it last met the back of the wreath and glue there, cutting off the excess tail. Start next strip at the same spot as where the previous strip ended, overlapping them slightly. Feel free to wrap around the whole wreath form twice, especially if you have a wider weave on your burlap and the form is showing through. Of course, this is one of those times when the straw form is great, because it was the same color as my burlap so you couldn’t really see the form through my single wrap job. Ta Da!

**TIP – If you find your burlap weave is coming loose and strands want to come out, create some “glue seams” at the back of your wreath where your strip ends meet each other. Simply do a line of glue at that location, then use the tip of your glue gun to sort of “smear” the glue out so that it covers the whole area where the strip are meeting up and is fairly flat. It’s not super pretty, but it’s at the back of the wreath so it doesn’t matter and it’ll prevent your burlap from coming apart over time.**

Feel free to attach purchased decorations, but with this one I wanted to make some flowers to pretty up the wreath. I made 2 rolled flowers, 2 all red folded flowers, and 2 multi-colored folded flowers.

Rolled Flower

Taking one of the fabric strips, at one end of it use a dab of glue to fold the edge into a small ball. Then twist the fabric as you wind it around the ball you created. While continually twisting, keep winding around creating a spiral disc shape. Add a dab of glue every so often as you wind to keep the spiral from coning or separating from the rest of the disc. When you reach the end of the strip, glue the untwisted tail to the bottom of the disc. Set aside.

Take 3-4 strips of the flower burlap (depending on how tightly you’ll be rolling and how large you want the flower to be). Use a small dab of glue to connect the strips end to end, creating one long strip. Now follow the same twisting and winding technique as before, being sure you’re gluing every so often. If you get to the end of the strip and the flower is not as large as you’d like you can easily add another strip by gluing ends together and then continuing your twisting and wrapping until it’s the size you like, then glue the flattened tail to the bottom of the disc.

Glue fabric disc to center of burlap disc. You now have a rolled flower that you can attach to your wreath!


















Folded Flower
Variation 1: 

Take 9 of the burlap squares you cute from the flower strips. Fold one square in half once, and then fold in half again, using a dab of glue in the middle to hold folds together at the folded corner. Do this to the rest of the squares. Using a scrap piece of fabric or burlap, attach 4 folded squares to scrap fabric creating a larger square shape. Be sure to just use a dab of glue at the folded corner to attach at the center. You want your layered edges to be fluffable. Attach 4 more folded squares on top of the first set of squares, but in an alternate pattern, so that you end up with a diamond on top of the first square. (Look at the picture, because that came out a little confusing, sorry.) Use a dab of glue on the folded corner of the final square and put in the center of the flower on point. Fluff edges to “blend” layers enough to hide gaps. Woo hoo, one more flower down!

Variation 2:
Take 4 flower colored squares, 4 base colored squares and 3 of the fabric circles. Fold all pieces into fourths again, using a pinch of glue (I got sick of say dab) to hold them together. Glue first in second layers of flower the same as above, with the first layer being the flower burlap and the second layer being the base fabric. Then use the 3 folded fabric circles to create the center, still by just gluing them on point in the center. Fluff and done!







Finish Wreath  

Lay wreath on flat surface and play with flower placement. Once satisfied, glue flowers to wreath. Take a longer leftover strip of base colored burlap, and glue in half to create the hanger. Glue folded strip to back of wreath. Let wreath hanger set until glue is fully cooled. Hang wreath and admire!

I know I didn’t take as many pictures of the small steps as I probably should’ve, so, if you have any questions please feel free to message me and I’ll try to help make things easier to understand. Enjoy and Happy Fall Y’all!

Linking up with these fabulous blogs:

Home Stories A 2 Z

Coastal Charm

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Made in a Day