I am a serial fabric purchaser and have boxes stuffed with all the offcuts and fat quarters which have caught my eye so I’m always looking for quick little projects to use them up. I found this idea in a book called “Half Yard Christmas” using festive fabric offcuts. The author, Debbie Shore, suggested gluing your fabric pieces and then pushing them into the polystyrene wreath base using a pencil which gave a much blousier effect than I have achieved here. I didn’t think glue would be needed and I decided to use a 3.75mm crochet hook to push my pieces in. This resulted in a smaller hole for the fabric to gather itself in and, therefore, tinier pieces left sticking out. It meant that I could cram my spring wreath with fabric pieces and that they looked very much like little spring flowers once they were in place!
I already had a polystyrene wreath in my craft stash and I chose three fabrics in lovely muted spring pastels from my collection and got to work
It wasn’t long until I realised I wouldn’t have enough of one of my colours for my fabric wreath, calamity! I rushed down to our fabric shop (it’s a 2 minute walk from my house which is VERY dangerous when you are as addicted as I am) to try and get another piece the same colour but no joy. This of course meant that I had to buy three more fat quarters in the same colours as my originals but in slightly brighter shades – well you would, wouldn’t you?!
Luckily I had realised pretty quickly that my original yellow wouldn’t go far enough for this project. I had only done two rows of flowers and decided that I would continue in a striped pattern of three rows of the pastel shades followed by three of the more vibrant pieces. It soon became clear that the stripes didn’t really show and I was producing a random and very pretty pattern. I grinned an awful lot while I was making this!
You could trim the flowers a little if you liked but I love the jumble – I think it captures the essence of spring as everything bursts into life and jostles its way into the light.
Just as I was photographing my fabric wreath the sun broke through and bathed my studio in light – my heart lifted. Spring is definitely on its way! Look – even the chicks came out for a little dance among the flowers!
How to Make a Simple Fabric Wreath for Spring
You Will Need:
- Fabric scraps cut into 3cm x 3cm squares – don’t be too rigid about this, as long as they are roughly the same size it works! If you are more organised me, and haven’t already been chopping into one of your fat quarters willy nilly, three fat quarters should be enough and four definitely will; I had lots left over from my six – enough to make some flowery polystyrene eggs too!
- A 3.75mm metal crochet hook – if you only have a 4mm hook or a 3.5mm hook that’s fine! If you don’t have one at all just use anything with a blunt end which will push the fabric into the polystyrene rather than piercing it.
- A polystyrene wreath ring (easily purchased from craft shops or online), mine measures 25cm in diameter
- A piece of coordinating ribbon
- Stapler and sticky sticky tape (I used parcel tape)
To Make Your Fabric Wreath
- Gently press your fabric pieces into place using your crochet hook. Place your fabric square where you want it to go, press in the middle of the square with your hook until it pierces the polystyrene underneath and push the fabric into place – it will fold in on itself in a very satisfying manner and leave you with a little flower sticking out.
- Repeat in stripes or a random pattern with all your colours trying not to put the same colour in too close proximity with it fellows.
- When you’ve finished fill in any gaps with any remaining fabric – I noticed I’d missed quite a few spots on the inside rim and it looked much better when I’d finished it off.
- Turn your wreath over and staple a length of ribbon into a loop on the back. Place a piece of sticky tape over the staples and the ribbon just to make sure it stays in place. If you have glue suitable for use with polystyrene you could use that – I don’t and didn’t want to melt it and undo all my lovely work!
If you’re really in the mood for a bit of Spring and Easter crafting why not have a go at some of these?
Paper Roses
Fabric Maché Eggs
It’s been a while since I wrote up a craft project – I’ve had a lot on my plate this year and there’s more to come, I’ll write about some of it soon – once I can see the wood for the trees. It’s all exciting stuff, stuff which will bear fruit long term but is currently just causing chaos! In the meantime I shall stay sane by sharing stuff like this – the stuff which keeps me mellow in the madness!
What do you do to keep calm in the eye of the storm? I’d love your tips and tricks!
Cheered me up after an exhausting bout of migraine. Am going to have a go at the wreath.
Gah! Sorry you’ve been suffering ? Glad I cheered you up and hope you’re perky again now xxx
Thank you for your great suggestions. I’ve started a wreath and found that some of the fabric squares are falling out when touched. Do you do anything to make sure they stay in place?
Hi KC, I didn’t need to when I made this one. using a tiny crochet hook seems to anchor them in place really well. Having said that, now that the wreath is three years old and has been in and out of its storage box every spring, one or two pieces have come adrift! I pop a blob of PVA (white) glue in the middle of the fabric scrap and poke it back in. It may be worth trying this for yours? I hope that helps, do let me know how you get on!
I am very new to crafting and I want to thank you for being able to describe how to make this wreath in a way I can understand and follow.
My mom passed away and left me with her quilting materials,boxes of quilt squares that she would cut out watching tv. NOW i know what to do with them.
Oh I love that! I’m so sorry for your loss but how fabulous to make a memory wreath xxx