Witchy Wreath

(I'm taking a break from my 31 days series because I really want to post this tutorial!)

T-minus 11 days and counting until Halloween! Fun fall/halloween decorating ideas are plentiful. I think I added 3 more ideas to my list just this morning! :) What I am noticing over and over again is that I'm in love with the witchy stuff - not the whole witch though, just the hats and the boots and those funny sayings ("if the broom fits..."). So I decided to make myself a wreath for my front door using just that. I also wanted to try out the mesh wreath type designs I've been seeing over and over and combined I ended up with a really fun wreath!

It was my intention to spend very little money on the project and I always love the challenge of creating the pieces myself, if possible. So I pulled it all together using a lot of things I had around the house. I pulled apart a berry wreath I had made a few years ago (that I had never really liked because it kept falling apart) so I could use the wire wreath frame. I gathered up fabric scraps and spare silk flowers. The only thing I purchased was 3 yards of purple tulle, which I split down the center to form 2 long strips.

I started with the legs for the witch. Using some inexpensive white fabric, I cut a strip about 4" wide and 12" long. I wanted the witch stocking to be stripes so I used black craft paint and painted the stripes onto the white fabric. After the paint was dry I sewed the fabric together to form one long tube. (You could use hot glue for this too, if you wanted to do a completely no-sew version)

I drew a boot pattern onto some scrap paper (if I find a scanner anytime soon I'll turn it into a printable template) then used it to cut out 4 boots (2 at a time) from black felt.

I didn't want the legs to just droop lifelessly, so I hot glued a wire to the center of the boot

then used the hot glue around the edges to glue the 2 sides of each boot together, leaving the top open

Then I stuffed the boot with a little bit of cotton batting.

I cut the tube of striped fabric into two 6" long section for the legs, slid them each onto the wire and into the top of the boot, and stuffed them too. Then closed up the top opening of the the boot with the hot glue.

The hat is made out of cereal boxes. I cut one into a half circle for the hat brim (I didn't want a full circle because I wanted the hat to sit more flat once it was attached to the wreath), and formed a cone with a second cereal box. Then spray painted both of them black.

And hot glued the cone to the brim. To make it even more "realistic" I cut a jagged piece out of some scrap black satin, to use for the witch's skirt.

Now with all the pieces prepped, it was time to put it together. I used the wire to attach the legs to the bottom of the wreath form then used the hot glue to add the skirt fabric.I used small pieces of floral wire (about 5" long. You will need to clip the ends off after you attache the tulle, but it's easier to work with if the wire is a bit longer) to attach the tulle to the frame, making little poufs with the fabric as I went.

See, now the wreath is really taking shape.

As it turns out, the tulle I had wasn't quite enough to make it really pouffy and cover all the wire (I'd get 5 yards next time which would give me 10 yards total to work with next time). So I took some coordinating fabric and wrapped the wreath frame.

The only left to do was add the embellishments. On went a little sign (just a small piece of wood painted black with vinyl lettering for the quote), some flowers, a little ribbon and polka dot fabric strips.Some more ribbon as laces on her boots.

And I now have a happy little witch wreath for my front door

Linking to:

Strut your Stuff Link party at Somewhat Simple
Feature Yourself Friday at Fingerprints on the Fridge