12.22.2010

12 Days of Christmas Decorating: Day Eleven

Don't toss those wool sweaters you mistakenly washed.
So many things you can make, like  a woolen holiday wreath.
Or head to the thrift store for inexpensive options.


To shrink a sweater to reuse the resulting felt,
wash and dry it repeatedly on hot until the weave is tight.


After cutting through the side and sleeve seams
I was left with fairly big flat pieces of fabric.
You can use scissors but I used a straight edge 
and rotary cutter to cut approx. 1" strips.


With scissors, I then cut approximately 1" squares.
Don't worry at all about perfection as
messier pieces actually make a prettier wreath.


Next, thread a large needle for your elves
leaving a long tail on the end for later.
Let them take a go at stringing the pieces together
until the stack is about 6-8 inches long.


Once their strand is done, as tightly as possible,
tie the two ends together to form a circle about 4" wide.
After that, add any embellishment you want.
I used silver cord for hanging and
added a mini red glass ornament to the bottom.


I didn't even use one panel of the sweater
for all six ornaments we made.
Next, I am going to try making a larger wreath
from much larger cut-out squares.


We area almost done with my series
"12 Days of Christmas Decorating."
Check back tomorrow for the final installment 
and to see how beautiful our tree looks.

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