Summer Sun Wreath

Here’s my August wreath.

If you don’t have a stash of fabric to dig through to make one of these, I’m so sorry to hear that. But you can go to the fabric store and buy what you need. You’ll need about two yards and a fat quarter of fabric, straight pins, a needle and thread, and a Styrofoam wreath form.

Pick out a collection of yellows, I used solid colors, but blenders and calicoes will work too. Buy widths of 1/8, 1/4 and 1/2 yard, to come up with a total of 1–1 1/2 yards of yellow. Get the most of your favorite, with other shades just to make it interesting. Find a half-yard of a contrasting print for the center, and select a fat quarter that goes with all of it for the sunspot.

First the Stars and Stripes wreath had to come apart. My nieces were at the house for a few hours one day last week and Riley took it apart for me and started this one by wrapping my handy-dandy Styrofoam ring in a strip of yellow fabric.

Then I ripped different shades of yellow fabric into strips about four inches wide, give or take. Some strips are about 45 inches long, the width of the fabric, and others, from scraps, are shorter.

If you bought fabric, use the 1/8 yard as is; rip the quarter-yard in half; and rip the half-yard three times to make four strips. You can cut some of these strips in half if you want shorter strips for more variety.

I hand-basted a loooong running stitch down the middle of each strip and pulled each into a ruffle. I pinned one end of the ruffle to the wreath and randomly gathered it and shaped it as I pinned it to the wreath.

I folded some strips in half length-wise and then basted, gathered, and pinned them to the wreath; others I left open and pinned them down the middle with gathers on both sides.

Since it was sooooo yellow I finished it off with about a half-yard of orange and yellow calico.  I folded it with the raw edges into the center and then folded it in half and draped it loosely in the center of the wreath and pinned it into place.

I found a fat quarter of batik, red with yellow flowers to make a sunspot on my sun.

I made the sunspot by pulling the corners of the fat quarter—wrong sides under—and stuck it to the wreath with a pin through the center, catching the four corners underneath. I formed it into a little puff, held it in place by hiding a few pins inside the folds.

That’s about all there is.

I’m brainstorming for my next wreath subject.  Something for September before I roll into Halloween.  Don’t know what kind of wreath I’ll make either. So far I’ve done fabric a few times and crochet.  Maybe something with paper?

My only criteria is to make it on this same foam wreath form, and to be able to use the parts for something else once the season has passed.

Any suggestions?

Jan