One of the best new finds around Syracuse is Rummage Heaven. It is an old church that someone filled with all kinds of upcycled, one of a kind finds. She does an amazing job filling her space with interesting things and I have to say it never smells. I will walk away every time from shops that smell because I promise no matter what, that smell is next to impossible to get out and absolutely not worth my aggravation.
So that being said, I barely ever walk out of there with out some kind of purchase. This fall I bought a fence section that someone already upcylcled with some metal elements. I couldn’t leave it but honestly at the time I had no plan.
With some thinking I came up with this…
Kinda boring but great place to start and build from.( Oh yeah that black post thing was a find there for$15!)
I had seen a grapevine wreath at Michael’s chippy painted but not in a color for my home but liked the idea. I just used a white chalk paint,(affiliate link), and my favorite cheapy well worn chippy brush, and just dipped the edge of the brush in the paint and barely dragged it onto the grapevine wreath, I was not looking for complete coverage just a dry brush look.
I ordered some wool felt balls. They are so cute and I love the garlands that everyone is making so I thought maybe make a floating garland and wrap it around the wreath so the little pom poms look like they are floating on the wreath. I just used a big needle and fishing line(invisible) , tied a knot at one end, I made it pretty long I would probably cut 4-5 feet. Thread your pom poms on and slide them down to the lower half of your fishing line. I actually knotted the knot end to the back side of my wreath and started wrapping the wreath with the garland. The balls are capable of being moved but they don’t move on their own.
So as I wrapped the garland around the wreath, I spaced the balls so they were on the edges and front. No need to have them in the back of the wreath, no one will see them.
I just kept moving along adjusting. I wrapped until I met where I began and then cut about a 6 inch tail and then knotted that to the back side of the wreath on one of the twigs. Remove any extra balls that didn’t fit before tying the knot. Also make sure that your arrangement looks pleasing. I used a few pinks, a greenish blue and white balls. I actually used fabric from Art Gallery Fabrics collection Lavish,
Cute, but I decided to add a little more.
I love felt. It has to be one of the most forgiving fabrics to work with and so pretty. This piece was actually something that I hand dyed, It actually looks like it was green and transferred to a blue dye bath. Here’s directions to make my felt bow:
Download pattern, Yes this is hand sketched and I used a ruler. There is a method to my madness but that is a post for another day.
The most important thing to remember is that both pattern pieces are only half of the pattern.
When I work with felt I always transfer my design to the paper side of freezer paper. So that being said you can actually trace the pattern, flip it and trace the remaining half or you can trace the half you see , iron to your felt, cut around, flip the pattern, pin and finish cutting, That’s what I did.
The first picture is actually the bottom of the bow( the bow is made by optical illusion, it is not tied, instead pieces are layered to make it look like a bow). I actually cut 1 piece of the lower bow(the tails) and then decided it was too floppy, I laid it on top of another piece of felt and just sewed around to stiffen it. You could use fusible webbing too.
Then I cut it out. To make the bow take the outer sides and bring them to the middle of the back of the bow, overlapping the sides. I sewed down the center to keep it together, or use hot glue gun.use sharp embroidery scissors to trim and shape your bow where necessary
I laid it on top of the bottom section and took my long rectangle piece and wrapped it around, securing it with hot glue. Then I hot glued the bow to the wreath. I actually attached multiple parts of the bow to keep it secure. I loved it, perfect! Super simple, not too expensive, not too time consuming.Have fun making this!
