Fall Rosette Wreath How-To

You may  or may not have spotted the wreath on my front door …

I made it for next to nothing.  The wreath form was $1 at Dollar Tree.  The rosettes are made out of painter’s drop-cloth (about $1 per yard) that I dyed.  The faux leaves were 50 for $1.  I like those prices.

(In the interest of full disclosure I’ll admit upfront that this wreath is a time-consuming project)

To start, I gathered my supplies:

The drop cloth was prepped for dye with Rit Color Remover (which, by the way, smells like rotten eggs.  Make sure you have your Febreze handy). I wasn’t sure if the drop cloth would accept dye, but breathed a sigh of relief when I opened the washing machine to find this:

I then colored a few yards of fabric each with the orange, red, and brown dye. Did I mention this project was time-consuming?  

Once everything was dry, I cut out 10”, 7” and 5” squares from each of the dyed fabrics. I also cut some squares out of the natural drop cloth color.  Then I cut circles from the squares – don’t worry, they don’t have to be perfect.

And then … it’s not easy to explain, but the picture says it all:

For the next step, you don’t have to sew; you can use the glue gun. I, however, have a love/hate relationship with the glue gun. To minimize the risk of burning my fingertips, I opted to sew the rosettes (although I did draw some blood). You start with the outside and roll and stitch and roll and stitch … (or glue) …

It starts tight at first and then you loosen it more and more as you go. When you near the end, it should look like this on the back …

Then you take the extra piece you see on the right and use it as a flap to cover the stitches.  It creates a flat, solid surface for glue. Stitch (or glue) in place:

The front of your rosette should now look something like this:

Once all your rosettes are done, arrange them on the wreath frame and hot glue in place.

 

I used some extra orange-dyed drop cloth to fashion a bow and hung it from my front door:

Now I need to get started on my winter wreath …