Tutorial: DIY Christmas Wreath

This project was originally part of an event over at Sew Dang Cute Crafts!!!!! I was thrilled that Tam asked me to come up with a project, and I love Tam’s site and her projects are “SEW” adorable! 🙂

So, here is the post I wrote for her a few weeks ago.
Today I’m going to jump ahead a few months and prepare you for the holidays. I’m one of those people that RARELY think ahead (I wish I was), and I’m kind of proud of myself for doing this project a few months in advance! (I can’t take full credit though, I am the Relief Society Activities director in my church group, so the wreath is part of a “Get ready for the Holidays” activity that I’m involved in.) 


The inspiration for this wreath came from a Patriotic version that I saw from The Scrap Shoppe. I just decided to turn it into a red, white and green wreath for Christmas. I thought it would look sort of like a candy cane with the red and white stripes. 🙂

List of supplies needed:
One 12″ Straw Wreath (Mine cost $2.99 at Michaels) (DO NOT get a Styrofoam wreath…if you drop it, it will shatter…take my advice, you do NOT want to spend hours and hours making a wreath for it to be ruined in 1.2 seconds…yes, I am speaking from experience here). 
1/2 yard of white burlap I bought the burlap at JoAnn’s for $2.99/yard.
1/2 yard of red burlap YES, you can buy red burlap. JoAnn’s sells it for the same price as white. (TIP: If you don’t live in an area that sells red burlap, you can spray paint it to be whatever color you want.)
An Olfa Cutting Board and Roller Knife
Crochet Thread
A long needle
Hot Glue Gun (preferably one that has a “medium” setting so you don’t burn your fingers.)
Hot Glue Sticks
Ribbon of your choice.


Step 1: Take your burlap and cut it into 2″ strips. Be prepared, the burlap will get ALL OVER YOU. So, wear something that can be covered in lots of gunk.

I used 12 strips of white burlap and 12 strips of red. I think maybe 14 of each would have worked a tad better, but I had a hard time the first time I started gluing because I put them too close together. It was too ruffly, and it looked TERRIBLE. So, I ripped them all off and started again. I wanted the white and red to look like a candy cane, and if the ruffles were too close together, it looked really bad.

Step 2. Take the Crochet Thread and make a large stitch about 1/2 an inch in along one side of each strip of burlap. I used my long needle because it was much faster than using a small one, AND I couldn’t get the thread into a small needle anyway. MAKE SURE that you don’t do it too close to the edge. The burlap is going to flake off like crazy and you need the stitch in far enough to make the ruffle.

Step 3: Make the ruffle by pulling the burlap to one side and carefully knot the ends of your crochet thread to hold it. Don’t make it too ruffly, I’m telling ya, too much ruffles make it look BIG-TIME BAD.

Step 4: Start at one spot and begin gluing, glue one stripe at a time, and cut the excess burlap off the back and hot glue it into place. Make sure to glue them straight and continue gluing around the wreath. See the illustration below for a few more tips:

Step 5: Put on a green bow, and voila you are done!!

I love the texture of the wreath, and the burlap flaking off is my favorite part.

I wish I would have used red crochet thread to make the red ruffles since you can see the white thread if you look closely, but oh well.

I thought this Christmas wreath turned out very cute and unique!