Happy Birthday America!!

So...I've been meaning to post this all week long.  But I had a training that I went to for three days this week and I was trying to catch up from vacation.  Whew!  Here is the tutorial for a fabulous 4th of July wreath. 

 One great thing to know about this wreath (since it's almost too late for the 4th) is that you can pick fabric to match whatever holiday you are being festive for.  We will however, be celebrating Independence Day for a while!

My wreath is modeled from this one here Fourth of July Wreath But I did end up making a few changes to what she had done. 

To make this wreath you will need various different fabrics.  Mine were all themed red, white and blue, burlap (I bought a yard but didn't use all of it), buttons, a wreath form (I ended up not using the one that is pictured), hot glue gun and a sewing maching.  The cat is optional.  It wasn't worth fighting to get her off the bed. 

First, you will cut the burlap into strips.  This was kind of messy but you don't have to be very exact when doing this.  Many of mine weren't very even.  

Once you've cut your fabric then begin wrapping it around the wreath form.  I switched to a green wreath form because it was easier to work with and looked better once it was wrapped.  Use just a little bit of glue to secure each strip.

 After the wreath is wrapped then I took some of my fabric and cut it into long strips that varied in width.  I really wasn't sure what I was doing for this, it ended up working out ok. 

After cutting my fabric I started sewing.  I took the strips and did a mix of pleating them and just scrunching the fabric up.  There is a way that you can sew it and it will ruffle, but I haven't figured that out just yet. 

Once you finished with a section it would naturally curve around.  That's a good sign I think.  :)

Scrunch all your fabric and you will end up with cute piles of festive fabric. After I was finished sewing I heated up the glue gun again.  I took the fabric and layered a few pieces from largest to smallest.  You totally could have stiched them together but I just used the glue gun to secure them.  I did them in layers.  I glued each piece into a circle then I glued the circles together.  To finish it off I glued some buttons in the center of each flower.  Here is a finished flower.

These are so flexible!  You could use all the same fabrics, you could use a lace with it, really just work with whatever you have.  After getting all of my flowers together I put them on the wreath.  Instead of gluing the flowers on, I used a straight pin and just stuck them on there.  That way, I can switch it out for the different seasons!  Here is a close up of the 3 flowers I did.

They are pretty big and busy - I'm ok with that.  You can make them smaller like the link that I posted or have them be large and in charge!  The hanger for my door is pretty short so I added some navy ribbon to the top before hanging it on my door.  Enjoy!!  Hope that everyone has a great 4th of July!