mostly easy Patriotic Wreath

I have been wanting a patriotic summer wreath for my door for quite a while. I decided to see if I could make one from only the supplies I had on hand. Want to see how it turned out?

First, to make the wreath form, I salvaged all the cardboard circles that come underneath frozen pizzas from our recycling box. I have been purposely saving them for some sort of craft (aka hoarding useless junk) so I had quite a few. I found a bowl whose diameter I liked and traced a circle onto 3 of the circles. Because I like smaller wreaths, my circle was a little less than 8 inches across. You could just use the outside of the circle for the edge of your wreath and that would be fine too. Then I cut out the circles. Next I found a bowl about 5" in diameter and traced inside my 8" circles to form the center of the wreath. I used an exacto knife to cut out the inner circles. I wanted my wreath to be kind-of rounded, like a wreath form you buy at the store, so I traced 8" circles onto about 5 more cardboard circles, but I cut inside the line a little more with each circle I cut out, so the circles became gradually smaller. Then I took one of my 5" circles left from cutting out the centers of the original 3 and traced it on the center of the biggest circle. I cut inside that line TOWARDS the edge with the exacto knife. And then I took that circle and traced it onto the next smaller circle and cut inside that line towards the edge. And I did that several more times, until my last circle was only about 3/4 of an inch wide. I know I should have pictures of this whole process, but I didn't decide to do a tutorial until I was in the middle of things, as usual. You can look here to get an idea of the process, or leave me a comment and I'll make another wreath form and actually take pictures. After all my circles were cut out, I stacked them and glued them together one at a time. I set a couple of heavy books on the form and let it dry overnight. 

Now, for the wreath itself. I used a piece of white fleece with a very small pile and wrapped my wreath form and glued the end down. I did this so the wreath would look even more rounded.

 I had a navy blue bandanas in our costume box from when Dave was a pirate. I folded one in half the triangular way and cut the bandana down the center. Then I measured 2" on either side of the center line and cut again. And twice more, until I only had two tiny triangles leftover. This gave me 6 strips of varying length. The strips were quite stretchy because they were cut on the bias. Then I pinned the edges of two strips as shown (the points should be opposite each other) and sewed straight across.

  And then repeated until all the strips were sewn together and I had one long piece.

 I ironed the long strip flat and trimmed the triangle tails at each seam. And then I rolled the strip up so it would be easier to wrap around the wreath.

 Then I just wrapped it up like a mummy! And glued down the last little tail with hot glue. I wasn't too concerned about making it lie completely flat. I think the wrinkles give it some character.

 All finished. 

I wanted a little something red on there too, but I didn't want it to be hugely froofy. I am not a froofy girl--I like things to be pretty, simply. So I played around with a piece of red gingham to make it into a rosette. Basically, you roll one corner of the strip of gingham down until the opposite corner forms a point. Then start winding the point onto itself while twisting the long tail. Hot glue fairly often (I love my low-heat glue gun for jobs like this. Ann, it's still going strong after all these years!) until the rosette is as big as you want. 

 As it gets bigger, it will start to kind-of stand up on itself, or you can flatten it if that's the look you prefer. When I came to the end of the strip of fabric, I glued it down to the back of the rosette. And then I hot glued it to the wreath in a spot that was mostly blue. 

 I hung it on the door with another strip of gingham. I wish my door were another color so it stands out better, but I LOVE the way it turned out. It's exactly what I was aiming for.

And, it was TOTALLY free! That seems especially appropriate for an Independence Day wreath, doesn't it?