How to make a Drop Cloth Wreath

Hello!  Sorry it's been a few days since I've posted.  I threw a baby shower at my house today, and we've been dealing with a burst water heater! Yay!....yes I'm joking....It's in the attic and it flooded all of the walls in my laundry room and the base of the stairwell.You don't want me to tell you how much this is going to cost (even with the homeowners insurance claim)...I won't tell you, it will hurt your sensibilities.   We have no hot water right now and I've been furiously trying to deal with that while pretending everything is good and throwing a baby shower.  I've been a bit nutso this week.  So, one of the projects I did for the baby shower was to make a wreath to hang on my mirror.  I ended up adding a cute little banner on it that said "welcome Harrison" ....Harrison is the name of my dear friend, Julie's new baby boy.  I know there are probably a million tutorials on how to make one of these.....honestly, I've never seen one.  I just made this up in the spur of the moment, so here's how I did it!

How to make a drop cloth wreath.

Here's what I started with.  I washed, dried and then cut (ripped!  love how you can rip drop cloths and they stay strait! score) drop cloths into strips that were about 12 inches wide.  The length will be as long as your drop cloth.  It will depend on how big your wreath is, as to how much of the length you will use.  I ended up using two of my strips.
The wreath form I used is actually a Christmas light holder.  I found them at Walmart in their discount Christmas bins.  There were three of these circles in a pack and they fit together to make a globe that you hang your lights on....to sort of have a light ball.  I didn't have any need for that, but I noticed their wreath potential, so I bought several of them.  They were only 50 cents each!  But I know you all won't necessarily have the same kind of wreath form, so you can totally do the same thing with other kinds of wreaths.  I imagine it would work great with a simple cheap grapevine wreath, or a foam wreath form...or whatever you have.   The only other thing you need is floral wire.  I bought the white kind so it would blend it with my drop cloth, and it did, really well.



You begin by taking the end of your drop cloth and gathering it around the wreath form.  My floral wire was really long, so I cut it down into thirds and then wrapped it around the drop cost to secure it to the wreath form.

You twist the floral wire tightly in the back of the wreath.

Once you have the first part attached, then you take a length of drop cloth, gather it together and tie it on like you did the first time....only this time, bunch it up as close as  you can to your first tie.

I found that it was easier to pull the fabric out several inches away, attach it loosely, and then scoot it down next to the previous tie, after it was already attached....then tighten the tie to hold it securely in place.  It made it easier to wrestle with the fabric.

You just keep going until you either reach the end of your fabric or you make it all of the way around.

Mine did not reach all of the way around, so I had to add on a new piece.  I just trimmed the excess and added the new piece upside down.  I tied it on right on top of the tie that was the last tie.

After you attach it, you flip it over and keep on going like you were before.  

Once you get to the end of your wreath, you will need to finish it off seamlessly.  The way I worked out to do this was to trim the fabric to the length you need it to be so that it doesn't have a big tail hanging down after you attach it, but you still have enough left to make one more puff of fabric and then another inch or so that will tuck under to hide the ends.  After that, you gather it up and lay the wire down on top of it, like you see in the picture.  (assuming you are working from left to right) 

You then fold the fabric up and over the wire and hold in place.  After that, you flip the entire thing over so that the wire and the fold is on the underneath side of your puff of fabric....then you attach it right on top of the very first fabric tie you made.  I hope that makes sense.  Basically, you are rolling the wire up in the fabric before attaching it as you have been doing.  Yes, I know...you really like my jammy pants....

And that's it....your wreath is finished!

You can embellish any way you like.  I added another strip of drop cloth to the top to hang it by, and I made a cute little banner to go across the middle by gluing tiny wood letters to ribbon, and then securing them underneath the twisted floral wire ties.  

Here's a final shot of it hanging up.  I had lost all of the light by the time this was done, so it's not the best picture, but you get the idea.

again....please ignore the laundry....ha!

I hope that was helpful to someone.  I ended up giving this wreath away to my girlfriend.  She loved it as much as I did ( warms my heart...sigh...), so I gave it to her.  So, I am definitely going to make another one.  Let's see if I will be as motivated to make something for myself as I am to make something for someone else.  I really do love it!  I will show you guys the rest of the shower later, once I get the pictures from my friend.  I was too busy being hostess to take any pictures.....so my other lovely friend took care of that.  It was a lot of fun and an unusual, but awesome theme.  It turned out awesome!

Happy wreath making!
xoxox,
Anna

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