How to make a rag wreath for Christmas and other seasons

While I always say I’m not that creative, I do occasionally like to try new crafts. I’ve got quite an ordered mind, so I’m not comfortable totally doing my own thing (although I’ve got better as I’ve got older and am more confident in just letting go a bit more). But I find it quite easy to put shapes and colours together so they look coordinated.  My best friend got me a rag wreath kit for my birthday and I thought I’d share how it went, and how you can make your own.

I’ve wanted to try rag work for ages and a rag wreath is a good start point.

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The kit included a circular wire wreath frame*, and lots of strips of coordinated fabric. It was based on greens, creams, whites and red, plus lots of netting to give it a bit more stiffness and oomph. Perfect for a Christmas theme, but you could choose any colour you wanted. 

What’s great about a rag wreath is you can collect all the fabric scraps you have, store them up then use them. Either with a colour theme or just mix and match. You will need a lot of fabric strips to make the wreath full enough, but adding some net will help. You want the fabric strips to be 2cm wide and about 13cm length.

Rag wreaths are great indoors, although if you’ve got a porch you hang one on the front door. You just don’t want it getting soggy from rain or battered from the wind.

To make the wreath you don’t need any major skills. Just able to do a simple loop around the wire and pull the ends through the loop. Then repeat with every fabric strip around the wire base. Once finished, fill in any gaps with 3-4cm wide netting pieces.

You want to really fill up the base, and then fluff up the strips. Some fabric pieces might be a bit longer, so once it’s all complete you can just trim off extra pieces that stick out where you don’t want to.

Add a loop to hang the wreath up, and you’re ready to display it.

I was really pleased with mine. It probably could have done with a bit more fabric squashed in there, or maybe a bit more red to stand out more. But it looks quite good, and I’ve still got fabric left.

If you’re looking to make up crafty presents for friends, or even to do as activities with children or school fund raisers, you could make your own kits up, or do workshops to make a rag wreath. They’re also good to use up old clothes – you just need to make sure the fabric holds it’s shape like cotton or ribbon, rather than jersey which would just slip and droop.

Maybe next I need to try a rag rug.

Have you ever made a rag wreath or tried other rag crafts?

Like this post, try these other tips for nearby days out.