Today I thought I would share with you the How To Make A Recycled Fabric Mini Wreath crafting class I am teaching every day at the Country Living Magaizne Fair.

This is a super easy NO SEWING craft that is just perfect for involving the children and I’m sure I’ll be teaching quite a few youngsters this week.

Wreaths have been a traditional part of Christmas for hundreds of years. They originated in the pagan winter festival as circles of flame, then rings of boughs with candles. All ways to show the unending circle of life and the seasons and bringing light to the dark and dismal winter months. A celebration of the light and good times to come.

Nowadays wreaths come in all types, sizes, shapes and contexts. You get the traditional holly and ivy wreaths, paper for indoors, chocolate festooned frivolities that wouldn’t last a minute in my house and of course fabric wreaths that are ever-lasting and can be brought out year after year.

The wreaths I’ve made here are really cute mini sized wreaths that can be hung either on your Christmas tree or on a door handle or drawer pull. This mini recycled fabric wreath measures approximately 15cm/6″ accross and is simply made using a few easy to find ingredients – ok crafty ingredients, I’m so used to writing recipes I don’t know the right crafty terms!

Here is what you’ll need to make a recycled fabric mini wreath;

1 piece of green garden wire, or any wire will do as long as you can bend it easily into a circle. My wire measured 25cm/10″ in length

1 sheet of tissue paper (you can use any paper her but tissue is nice and soft to work with, kitchen roll is great too)

20 scraps of fabric approximately 2cm/1″ wide by 10cm/4″ long

1 piece of twine or ribbon for hanging

Here is how to make a recycled fabric mini wreath:

1. Start by making a circle with your wire and bending both ends into hooks and just hooking these together to form a closed circle.

2. Take your tissue paper and scrunch it into a long crushed snake shape. Starting at the joint of your wire circle simply press the paper against the wire and crunch it into the wreath shape to cover the whole circle of wire.

3. Now take your pieces of fabric and simply wrap each around the tissue base and tie it in a single knot facing forward

4. Keep moving around the wreath tying on your pieces of fabric so they are right next to each other with all the knots facing forwards

5. Continue until the wreath is covered and then trim off any ends that are too long or very uneven. If you have pinking scissors you can use these to get a pretty effect.

6. Loop your piece of twine or ribbon around the wreath to form a hanging loop

Now that my friends is how to make a recycled fabric mini wreath. You can get fancier by dipping the edges of the tied on fabric scraps in craft glue and sprinkling on glitter for a bit of glitsy sparkle, but I like them nice and simple.

I fragrance my recycled fabric mini wreath with essential oils of rosemary, lavender, cinnamon and orange to make my house smell fabulously festive.

In fact come back on Thursday and I’ll be sharing all my info on natural festive fragrance from the talk I’m doing at the show.

I hope you’ll have a go at these cute little wreaths. I’ve spent the last few weeks putting together over 150 kits for the class atendees to make during the show. Honestly I feel I could be making them in my sleep.

Karon x