Thursday, October 11, 2012

Rag Heart Wreath



I've been having a clear-out of some of Maisie's old baby clothes.  They were forming an ever-increasing mountain in the corner of our bedroom and something needed to be done.  I just couldn't put it off any longer...

The sentimentalist in me desperately wanted to hold on to a few items, just to have a little piece of those baby years, if nothing else.  I don't want to just squirrel them away, so I thought I'd make a little something for Maisie's room.

I'd read about making a heart-shaped rag wreath out of a wire coat hanger, so I thought I'd create one of my own and show the steps here.

You really just need a wire coat hanger, some old clothes, and some pinking shears, but I thought I'd take mine a little further, as you will see...

First I bent the wire coat hanger with my hands and fingers, creating a bend in the centre...


 ...and then smoothing out the side bends...


 to form a heart shape.


I then took some pliers (although with a strong hand, you probably wouldn't need these) and curved the hook around to form a loop.


I finally wrapped gardening twine around the loop and the top of the heart to seal in any sharp edges and bring it all together...


Voila!  One wire heart wreath base!


Next, I cut my clothes into strips of about 3cm wide by 17cm long and just knotted them, one by one, onto the wire.  I just kept cutting and knotting until I couldn't fit any more strips on, evenly spreading the colours and fabrics as I built it up.


As an extra touch, I thought it might be nice to add a little bit of extra girliness in the shape of some battery operated fairy lights  -


I used a string of 20 battery powered fairy lights.  I tied the battery pack to the base of the wreath and then wrapped the lights around the wreath, keeping the wire predominantly at the back and only wrapping it around where I wanted the light bulb to sit at the front.


 I've got a couple of other additions in mind... Possible follow up blog post coming soon...


This blog post contains Amazon affiliate links to similar products that I purchased myself to make my Rag Heart Wreath. If you click through and purchase anything from Amazon, I may receive a very small percentage of the purchase price.

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Serendipitous Knitted Wreath
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4 comments:

Nancy at maddalee™ said...

This is adorable, love it with the lights!

Have a good day, Nancy

Anonymous said...

I just re-did my entire living room and this makes a great fit to my decor. Thanks for the idea - its so shabby chic! <3

Unknown said...

How much fabric do you think you used? 1 lb, 2? Need an idea how much to buy.
Thanks!

Maria Jose Rosinha said...

Adorei a ideia, simplesmente bela. julgo que o truque é colocar tecidos nos mesmos tons...que acha? muito obrigada pela partilha. Bem haja.
Maria Jose Rosinha