Fall Yarn Wreath

  Last year, yarn wrapped wreaths were the "in thing".  Thankfully, this year they are still in style!  I have seen many pretty ones, even ones with felt flowers.  I decided I would try my hand at it.  I love to crochet, so I have my secret stash of yarn and found an orange skein that reminded me of fall. 

Materials;
12" foam wreath round
1 skein of yarn (I used Red Heart Soft, Tangerine)
Scissors
2 Flat head or satin pins
Hot glue gun and glue sticks
Wired 2" wide ribbon (I used a fall glittered leaf one I had). 
Embellishments: 
  I used glittery gourds and pumpkins, some dried oat sprigs, paper fall leaves (both at Michaels in a pack for less than a dollar) and a bow made out of an onion orange mesh bag. 

Before I begin explaining how I did it, I should explain that the most tedious part of this craft is to wrap the yarn around the foam round.  It took me two afternoons, while I watched some TV.  You also have to keep your yarn together, because it can easily get tangled.  Tangles will only make your wrapping take longer! I was determined so I didn't get too frustrated. 

I first took a flat pin and pinned my yarn down to my wreath, leaving a one inch slack.  Then I began to wrap, making sure that the string was fairly taught and there were no spaces showing in the inner part of my wreath.  I say the inner circle because inevitably there will be some parts on the outer part of your foam wreath that will show.  Don't worry, that will get taken care of when you wrap yarn around the wreath a second time.  Some say to wrap three times, but I found that two times was enough, if you make sure when you wrap you keep it tight and close together.  When I was done, doing my first round, I started overlapping over the yarn for a second layer.  This time I made sure that the foam parts on the outer part of the wreath which were showing were being covered by the yarn.  When I returned to the starting point, I used another flat pin to pin my yarn down and left another inch for good measure.  This spot would be covered by the ribbon later.

So you have your wreath round wrapped; now you have to embellish.  I try to use what I have on hand, so I conjured some oat sprigs from last year and some leaves that I had used for scrapbooking the year before.  I started to position my items, to get an idea of how I wanted things.  This is important to do before gluing it down.  The I found some glittery foam pumpkins and gourds I had, and my design was complete.  I used my glue gun to glue those off center, to the left (remember the top of your wreath should be where your flat pins are!).

  The last step is to make the door hanger.  I first cut the long ribbon, the length that I wanted for my door, about two feet, so four feet total). An then made a bow with more ribbon and glued it together at the top.  I then made a bow out of my onion mesh bag and glued that on top of the prior bow and finally glued on my glittery gourd.  On the back I used a piece of metal wire to hang my wreath. 

  All in all, it took a couple hours to wrap and less than half hour to embellish my wreath.  I used items I had, so it was fairly inexpensive too!  Hope this  helps anyone that would like to try to make their own, you will be amazed at how wonderful it looks when it is done!
ECC Jay