DIY Farmhouse Rag Wreath
One of the easiest wreaths you can make is a rag wreath. It’s a great way to use up old scraps of fabric, ribbon, yarn or whatever else you have laying around, and it can be as large or as small as you’d like.
I turned an old Dollar Tree hula hoop into a rag wreath, and I’m absolutely in love with it for fall. The hula hoop was bought early in the summer, and the kids had used it well, so I didn’t feel bad about turning it into decor. I love to upcycle, and this was way easier than going and buying a huge wreath form.
I had already decided it was time to give our front porch a bit of a makeover (I’ll share the full results soon!), and I wasn’t sure what kind of wreath I wanted. I had just painted our front door a nice dark gray, and everything else was shaping up to be going in a similar direction, so I wanted something that wasn’t too bright and colorful.
I headed down to my craft room and gathered some random fabrics and ribbons I hadn’t used before, and I decided to turn them into an old fashioned rag wreath!
They’d been sitting in my stash, and I figured why not use them? I also gathered up some of my glue sticks because I knew I’d need them, as well. I use Gorilla brand glue sticks because I find they have the best hold and work well outside.
I started by cutting my fabrics, ribbons and yarn into strips around 2 inches wide by around 6 or 7 inches long. I didn’t measure them, I just eyeballed them.
Once I had a good pile of cut strips (or rags), I was able to get started with the tying. I basically just kind of grabbed from each pile, adding one after another and scrunching them together to make sure they covered the hula hoop. I didn’t want to have any of the metallic tape showing through. Those dollar store hoops are GARISH!
Some of the scraps were actually kind of difficult to tie. The burlap kept falling apart, and I wish I’d have cut the pieces longer, as they were really fiddly to tie properly. But it was okay.
I also ended up cutting some pieces of rope to add to the wreath. I really just wanted to add as many different textures as I could. The yarn I’d chosen turned out to be really bad for this project, as it kept coming apart. I was covered in fluff balls by the end.
I won’t lie. The tying of the scraps took a lot longer than I’d anticipated. It was tedious work, and I would estimate it took over an hour to fill the hoop three quarters of the way.
Which is when I ran out of scraps. Whoops!
Never one to be deterred, though, I simply decided to take the last bit of the wreath and wrap it tightly in some of my rope. I used macramé cord for this, and it looked quite nice, if I say so myself.
I started by using my SureBonder glue gun to glue one end of the rope tightly to one side of the open section. I had made sure to get all of the fabric scraps as tightly together as possible so that I could make sure they didn’t have gaping holes when I was done.
Then I began wrapping the cord around.
I added glue every few wraps, just to make sure it didn’t come away in the wind or rain. Then I wrapped some more.
And I wrapped some more….
When I was finally finished wrapping, I secured the other end with more glue, again making sure it was as tight as possible to the fabric scraps.
But I knew I couldn’t just leave the wreath like that. I had to add a bow. No wreath is complete without a big giant bow, right??
I wanted to be sure to keep with the theme, so I decided to go for a double bow made from the burlap and buffalo check ribbons. If you’ve never made a bow before, let me walk you through my process really quick.
Once I had the bow made, I started thinking about where to add it on the wreath.
I also began wondering if it needed maybe one last embellishment to complete it. I dug around and found these Dollar Tree pumpkins from last year and thought one of them might work.
I settled on the Welcome Friends sign, as it was more in keeping with the theme of the wreath.
Once that decision was made, I simply glued the bow and the sign onto my wreath, and I was all done!
I think it turned out totally cute! I did add a small piece of rope to the top so that I could hang it, and then it went up on my front door immediately! It looked so cute!
All the kids and my husband came out to see it, and even they thought it was adorable. It truly made my porch look so much better!
I hope you love it as much as I do. I can’t believe how well it turned out, even if it was SUPER tedious to tie all those scraps on!
I hope you’ll share it with your friends. Let me know if there’s anything you would do differently. And share any rag wreaths you have made. Tag me on instagram at @homeishandmade
