Christmas Poke Wreath Craft

I made this Christmas wreath over 20 years ago, and it still looks good as new.

I am giving you instructions for a 14 inch wreath. You can use a smaller or larger wreath (but then you will need less fabric for the smaller one, and for the larger one of course you will need a lot more fabric).

Supplies needed

For the Christmas wreath I used 5 different fabrics

2 to 3 yards - Solid green (christmas green) (glue and poke one row of the christmas green material)

6 yards - Printed christmas material (glue and poke 4 rows of the printed christmas material)

2 to 3 yards - Printed red material to match the red in the printed fabric (glue and poke one row of the red printed material)

2 to 3 yards - Another printed christmas fabric (glue and poke 3 rows of the other printed printed christmas fabric)

1 1/2 to 2 yards - Off white or cream fabric (solid) (poke and glue one row of the off white or cream solid fabric)

1 - 14 " - Circular Shaped Straw wreath (preferrably wrapped in saran wrap).

1 piece of card board or plastic table cloth (if you use a plastic table cloth and the glue drips on it, once dried it can be peeled off.)

(if it is not in suran wrap, you can wrap it yourself with one layer of saran wrap, so when the straw gets draw it doesn't start falling out).

1 Lg. bottle of Tacky glue

about 8 inches of heavy crafting wire

screw driver (philips head/which looks like and X or +).

pinking shears or cutting tool with the pinking shears blade.

4 yards gross grain ribbon (1 1/2 inches wide) (color you prefer)

Fabric - (choice of the colors and prints you like).

4 to 6 yards printed cotton

Cut all the Fabric 4" x 5" with the pinking shears

Take the wreath and lay it flat on a plastic table cloth or cardboard. Decide how you want your pattern of your fabric to look I used all printed material around the sides and part of the front, then I added one row of solid fabric and then I finished the rest off with printed material

Starting your first row of fabric being poked into the wreath where the wreath and the table or card board meet. Take a square of fabric and the screw driver, placing the screw driver in the center of the fabric with the wrong side of the fabric facing you. Then pull up the fabric around the screw driver and hold while dipping about 1 inch of fabric in to the tacky glue, then poke into the wreath about 3/4 to 1 inch deep and placing each square about 1/4 inch away from the last square. (You can place them further apart to save on fabric - I like mine closer so it looks fuller).

Once you have the sides done, start poking fabric in on the top of the wreath (you can use all the same fabric or use a mix of fabrics as I did).

Once you have the top of the wreath done, you will want to finish your wreath off by poking and gluing the squares in the inside of the wreath too, all the way to the table cloth or cardboard.

When the wreath is done let it sit and completely dry for 24 hours.

Now make your bow using the step by instructions at the following website http://www.craftideas.info/html/simple_bow.html then using the tacky glue, add a good amount of glue on the back of the bow and attach to the wreath. I held mine in place with stick pins (which I pulled out once the glue dried and adhered to the fabric of the wreath).

My wreath took me about a week to complete.

You will now need a hanger on your wreath, so take your heavy crafting wire and poke it through the back of the straw and then take the 2 ends and twist them together. This makes a great hanger.

Now hang on the wall.

When storing I just put a plastic bag over mine and then I hang it on a hook in my closet.

Enjoy