How to: Recycled Wool Felt Christmas Wreath

Our new wreath gets quite a bit of attention.  But I have a secret, it wasn’t hard to make and it’s really just an old jacket and took one long baby nap to make. 

Here’s how to do it:

First you need some felt.  This is wreath was formerly an old wool jacket that I felted in the washing machine.  Wool scarves and sweaters will also work well.  Really felt them by washing in hot and cold and drying a few times.   They should shrink and firm up.  If you don’t use wool you could totally use another fabric, just try and find something thick and be mindful of how much it will fray.

Next cut out all the seams so you have some nice flat pieces of fabric.

Then you’ll want to cut your fabric.  Experiment with a piece of paper first if you want to know what shape will turn into what sort of flower.  I mainly used squareish spirals but C and L shapes worked really well especially for smaller ones.  You’ll want a variety of sizes.

Now we make the flowers.  Start winding up your felt by wrapping it around your thumb while pinching it.  How tight or loose, how fat or skinny, how long, these will all effect the final shape so enjoy yourself. 

To finish them off, take a big needle and thick thread, yarn or floss and make a few big tight stitches.  This will not show so it’s a great time to use up your odds and ends and leftovers from past projects.  Leave the tails long as you’ll need then to tie the flowers to the form.

Now you need to attach they to the wreath form.  I used a reclaimed floral one, but there are many options, I suggest using one from a hideous old wreath.

Paying attention to the composition start tying on your flowers.  You’ll want to do this as tightly as possible.

Once everything is tied on you’ll notice that there is still quite a bit of movement so grab that needle and thread and stitch each bud to its neighbour.  Do this from the back and pull your thread tight.  If you have the time and energy you can use the needle to pull the thread’s loose ends back into the flowers. Otherwise just cut them off short.

And that’s it!  A 100% reclaimed, recycled wreath that is weather proof and will last for years.

How to: Pimp that Preserve

After a week off to fill a crazy amount of etsy orders, I’m back on the blog.  It's so great that so many stockings will be filled with seeds and that so many people will be growing such interesting fruits and vegetables this spring.

I also had a nice mention from Cracker's Blog in the National Post Food Blog.  Again, it's really nice to see so many people really getting into where their food is coming from and coming to the same conclusions that we did, growing your own is satisfying and delicious.

With Christmas fast approaching, this week will be a little craftier than usual, but I promise there are lots of nice recipes coming up.

One of my favourite blogs, Well Preserved is in the last days of accepting entries for a great competition; Pimp that preserve.  They’ve invited their readers to submit their decorated /pimped canning efforts and there are some fantastic entries. 

While my entry is far from being the most creative, I am pleased that I found such a quick, easy, and entirely recycled way to wrap up the jars I’m giving as gifts.

This is probably the simplest tutorial on the internet.

Find box of old Christmas cards that you can’t seem to throw away.  The tackier, the better.

      Cut circles out of old Christmas cards that are the same size or just a little smaller that your lids.  I used an Olfa compass cutter, but tracing and using scissors would be fine.

  

I used this great Snowflake punch, which makes a nice layered effect with the silver of the lid showing through.

Remove ring, put circle of card over lid, put ring back on.  Presto! Eco-friendly gift giving!