Wednesday 8 December 2010

* make* this festive rag wreath




At Atelier we are passionate about craft. Not only do we stock a range of gorgeous, orginal affordable work from new and established artists - we're also wanting to share craft skills and projects through artist-led workshops and free tutorials.


So, for your crafty delectation, each month we'll be posting a new *make* project on the Atelier blog. You will also be able to pick up a printed copy of the tutorial from our contemporary crafts gallery on Tuly Street.

What better way to start our new series of *make* tutorials than with a simple but stunning rag wreath. It's a great way to use up your scrap stash or to recycle old clothes.

To make your festive rag wreath you need: a wire wreath ring, fabric scraps, ribbon

Any fabric will do! Chop up old clothes (I used an old skirt in the pink version above), hessian and linen looks great or use your stash of bits left over from other projects.

You need to cut your fabric into strips of about 6” long and about 1” wide. Don’t worry about being too exact, you can tear them if you like or cut them using pinking shears to give extra texture. The amount of strips you need depends on the size of the wire ring you choose. For a 12” florists ring you’ll need about 100 -150 strips.



Then all you do is tie them onto your wire ring. You can use a florists ring, like the one in the picture above, or make your own by re-shaping a wire coat hanger into a circle, keeping the hook at the top to hang your wreath once it's finished.
I do have a small number of florists rings in the gallery in case you can't get hold of them in your local florists.

Keep tying the strips of fabric to the ring and occasionally push them together so that there are no gaps. Keep going until the whole ring is covered in fabric. Fluff out your strips a little. Finally find a piece contrasting ribbon, use one piece to tie into a pretty bow and a smaller piece to use to hang your wreath. In the blue polka dot version I added some festive jingle bells for decoration.
Ta da. Hang on your door or give to a friend as a gorgeous handmade Christmas gift .

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