Crafting Equation and [Stuffed] Animal Abuse
I’ll begin with the latter…
Since I was “one of those kids” who liked to disassemble Barbie dolls and give my stuffed animals “haircuts”, it really shouldn’t have come as a surprise to see this:
…or this:
Sigh. Life must be hard for a stuffed animal. Especially one chosen to be some child’s favorite…
But continue we must to the actual content of this post, my crafting “equation”.
I rarely make anything “just because it’s cute” and that requires more than a couple hours. Usually, several components have to come together before I sacrifice hours of my life where I should could be doing laundry or cleaning the bathrooms 
It goes something like this:
need + inspiration + takes less than 2 hours to complete + materials on hand =
Jen makes something
This is how my “All Ruffled Up for Spring” wreath came into being.
need
Shortly after I hung the very pink wreath I made last summer, I found the beginnings of a bird’s nest:
I didn’t want the birds to actually settle in considering that we’re starting to open and close the front door as the weather gets warmer. So, a need for a new, less-twiggy-and-bird-attracting wreath.
inspiration
Sometime last year, I came across this gorgeous wreath:
I immediately bookmarked it with intentions of making it someday…
Then about a month back, I was pleasantly surprised to see daffodils popping up in our landscaping:
At that time, Jeremy’s dad had parked his yellow viper in our driveway. Yellow is such a happy color!
A couple days ago, I got this perfectly ruffled carnation:
Well, the yellow daffodils have since dried up. The viper is no longer gracing our driveway. And that carnation won’t live forever. But that wreath…
takes less than 2 hours to complete
But that wreath does not take less than 2 hours to complete. According to the lady who made the wreath, it took her 12 to 15 hours… not to mention cutting out 286 circles… I don’t know. I really like that wreath (and kudos to the lady who made it!) but I just don’t think I have the patience to see it through. However… I do know how to make ruffles… and make them fast…
materials on hand
No felt. But I have plenty of fabric. So much so I think I need an intervention. I’m so addicted to pretty patterns… and it doesn’t help that there’s a designer fabric store within walking distance from the kids’ school…
So a need for new front-door decor, a desire to have something yellow in place of daffodils, a beautiful model to keep me inspired, and plenty of material on hand, my own version of a ruffled wreath was born:
This took me a little less than an hour to do. If you feel so inclined to make one too, here is a quick tutorial:
The “All Ruffled Up for Spring” Wreath
You will need:
- 1.5 yards of fabric (I used 42″ wide quilter’s cotton)
- scissors or rotary cutter and mat
- ruler
- 18″ wire wreath (I got mine at Jo-Ann’s for $3.99)
- needle and thread
- sewing machine
- hot glue gun
1. With your fabric still folded selvedge to selvedge (the way it comes right off the bolt), cut 2-inch-wide strips across the length of the fabric. (Your strips will initially be folded in half.) For my wreath, I cut a total of 26 strips:
2. Open up your strips, and two-by-two, with ends matching, sew the strips together:
3. You now have a very very long strip (Mine measured 91 feet long! I didn’t actually measure it. I just used my calculator…)
4. Now set your sewing machine’s tension and stitch length to the max (e.g. tension set at 9 and stitch length set at 5.0) and sew straight down the middle of your very long strip. It should ruffle up nicely as you go along:
5. Take one end of your ruffled strip and start folding it back and forth, about 2 inches at a time (similar to making a gigantic squiggle and then squishing it together) until you have a small ruffled-flower-like thing:
6. With your needle and thread, secure the layers by passing through a few times:
7. Repeat steps 5 and 6 a small section at a time until you reach the end, placing your ruffled flower bunches in the wreath frame as you complete them:
8. With your hot glue gun, secure the ruffles onto the frame. Alternatively, you can hand sew/secure the ruffles onto the frame.
9. If you’re like me and ended up with some uneven spots, you can fill in the gaps with some pretty fabric flowers! (I’ll be posting tutorials on how to make some next week!):
And here are some library totes that came about through the same crafting equation:
Calvin and Charissa love going to the library… a mini Wednesday ritual for us
Melinda Says:
