Getting Festive

Linda and Matt share a passion for holiday decorations. It doesn't matter which holiday - 4th of July, Christmas, Sweetest Day - so long as they can find a decoration for it. If we can't find a decoration, we don't have a problem making our own.

Recently my sister created a fabric wreath for Halloween:

Growing Up Gabel

We don't celebrate Halloween, but I liked the idea behind the wreath: fabric and a wreath form. What could be easier? Linda and I trotted on down to Joann's to see what we could find for fall and Christmas.

My sister bought 1.25 yards each of five different fabrics for her 16" wreath form, but she had a ton of fabric left, so Linda and I hit the remnant shelf first to see what we could find. We bought five different fabrics for each wreath (a mixture of prints and solids), and we bought 12" forms.

The remnants ranged from 0.33-1.0 yards, then we purchased 0.5 yards of the other fabrics. Based on my sister's experience, I cut my material into 1" x 6.5" strips. DISCLAIMER: My sister used a rotary cutter, but she didn't tell me that. I had to use scissors, which is a MUCH longer process. However, it worked very well to measure a 13" wide section and cut that in half. I then took each 6.5" strip and continually halved it until I ended up with 1" pieces.

It took a while, but I cut strips while watching TV, so it wasn't bad. After I had everything cut, I gave the pieces to Linda and turned her loose. Her fingers would get tired and she had to take a couple of breaks, but she kept at it.

Linda tied the strips to the second ring from the outside (the third largest). When she finished, the wreath was fully covered and there was still a pile of cloth (and I hadn't even cut all of the fabric yet). I had roughly 2.25 yards of fabric for the fall wreaths, and it was enough to make two.

We haven't started the Christmas wreaths yet because we need to buy a couple more forms. She's pretty excited about making more, especially now that we know we'll be able to keep one at the house and give one away!

I'm most excited about the fact that we can make these wreaths for any occasion. As long as Joann's keeps making holiday-themed fabrics, we're in business.

Our chiropractor - Linda decided to give her second wreath to Dr. Brad of Back on Track. You can see it there this month!