How To Make A Yarn Wreath

Have you ever wondered how people make those adorable yarn wreaths?  They are just about everywhere these days and most come with a hefty price tag.  If you can’t swing the $40 or so to buy one don’t worry, follow my simple tutorial to make your own for around $10!

Here is what you will need: 

• Foam/Straw/Styrofoam wreath (sold at craft stores for $2-$3)
• Yarn – any kind, I used a #4 medium weight
• Felt flowers or your choice of embellishments (make your own here.)
• Spray adhesive
• Scissors
• Ribbon/string for hanging

This project will take you about 2-3 hours depending on how big your wreath is and what all you want to put on it.  Mine is very simple but you can make yours as detailed as you would like.  I spent $4.00 on a skein of medium weight yarn, but you don’t need the whole skein for this project.  I didn’t measure out how much I used but at the end it was barely enough to make a dent!  I am using a 12 inch foam wreath that I got from Michaels for $2.50 but you can use whatever size you like.  I like the 12 inch because it is a really nice size for a front door or even to hang above a mantle.  I am putting this one in Kaia’s room to match her new custom sheet set that is being made!

There really are only three steps to making a simple wreath like this one, the first (and most time consuming) is to wrap your yarn.  Start by spraying a small patch of glue onto your wreath and wrapping the yarn around it very tightly a number of times.  I like to make this first section very smooth and tight because it helps it stay secure, there will be more yarn going over it and this is where I will eventually put my flowers.  The spray adhesive bonds very quickly so you don’t have to worry about slippage.  Try to keep a short distance between your wreath and yarn skein so you don’t get any accidental tangles.

After wrapping the initial section of yarn you can start wrapping it with spaces.  I don’t advise aiming for perfectly smooth and together wrapping at this point for two reasons.  1- we are going to have 3 layers of yarn and 2- as the wreath curves it will start to look wonky.  Sorry if that doesn’t make sense, here’s a visual to better explain what you should aim for.

I hope that helped.  Once you are a full way around the wreath just keep going, filling in the spaces and making sure you are pulling the yarn tight the whole time until you don’t have any more foam peeking through.  I like to periodically spray a bit of adhesive and wrap over it just to keep everything nice and strong.

After you are finished wrapping all of your yarn make a small knot on the side you want to be the back and spray a little adhesive on it.  Cut the yarn right after the knot.

Don’t worry if your yarn looks perfect, mine doesn’t and it’s still going to be beautiful.

Now that the yarn wrapping is (finally) done, you can move on to the fun part of adding your decorations!  I am using some felt flowers that I bought at Michael’s for $2.99 per set, but if I had time between writing and having two small (hyenas) kids I would make them myself.  If you are using store bought flowers they will probably come with brackets on the back of them, just pop them off with an X-acto knife.  If you are making them check out my tutorial here.

Attach your flowers with spray adhesive or hot glue.  Apply the glue to your flowers and not the wreath so you don’t have glue where you don’t need it.  I prefer hot glue for this step but I’m using the spray because my glue gun is still in a box somewhere from our move.  You will probably want to lay them out and figure out your design before you do any gluing so you don’t have to peel them off and have ugly stickies where you don’t want them!  Make sure to press firmly for 30 seconds to help the glue set or you might have to redo it.  You can also use a round tipped sewing needle and pin through the flower into the wreath.  This is good if you want to be able to switch out your flowers/colors.

The final step is to attach your ribbon or string that you will hang the wreath with.  I chose a pretty gold one that I’ve had for a while.  Just make a loop and thread through.  Here’s another visual because I fail at explaining sometimes.

Now you are finished!  Wasn’t it easy?  There are SO many options and ways to customize this yarn wreath, you can make it as simple or as intricate as you like.  Use multiple colors of yarn for a nice color pop or add buttons and different shaped felt embellishments to suit your decor or needs.  I would love to make one with a little nest and felt birds for springtime.

I hope you found this tutorial simple and useful, please let me know in the comments if you have any problems or questions!  Want to Pin It? Use the button below this post.  Happy crafting everyone!!