I can make that!

One of my favorite bloggers, Chris at Just a Girl, is having a party! Chris has a lot to celebrate--she just unveiled a beautiful new blog design, and she's decided to take the plunge into attracting blog sponsors. So it's a good day for her to have a party. And it's a good day for all of us, for her party idea is a great one. Here's our chance to share ideas of all kinds of things that we can make. . . and there's plenty of time for us to learn from one another and make lots of wonderful gifts and decorations in time for Christmas.

What I'd like to show you has the most humble of beginnings:

scraps of fabric and a wire coat hanger.

That's it. That's the entire list of materials required to make a ragamuffin wreath!

You've seen the adorable ragamuffin garlands made wildly popular by the Nester. Nester even did a tutorial on these for Edie's 12 Days of Homemade Christmas series.

I took that idea, but instead of tying my fabric scraps onto a string or wire, I tied them to a wire coat hanger. As much as I prefer padded or plastic hangers, I still have lots of wire hangers in my house. I chose a sturdy wire hanger, removed the paper from the hanger, bent the body of it into a circular form, and began tying. (Don't worry about getting the hanger into a perfect circle. It's going to get bent some as you go, and you can always tweak it after you've finished tying on your fabric.) If you like, you could use wire cutters to remove the hook from the top of the hanger. I find the hook useful for hanging the wreath, so I don't cut it off.

For this project, I suggest you cut your scraps of fabric or ribbon around 7" to 9" long. Anything less than 6 or 7 inches will be hard to tie. Pieces longer than 9" or so will be a little too long, since the pieces need to follow the circular form of the wreath. Of course, you could always trim pieces off a bit after you've completed the wreath.

Here's a wreath that I'm making for Thanksgiving. When it's finished, I'll probably add a little something to it--maybe a small sign that says "Give thanks." In a perfect house, this would be finished and hanging somewhere really cute. In my house, it's only half finished. But here it is:

And here's a little different one. It's made with scraps of just one flannel fabric, all cut exactly the same length. I added a bow and the rustic jingle bells.

Isn't it cute? I hang it on the inside of the glass door leading in from my front porch. I always hang a pine cone wreath on the outside of this door, so having a wreath on the inside of the door is nice.

This photo is terrible, but you get the general idea.

I'll bet you have a bunch of fabric and ribbon scraps lying around. And if you don't have a wire hanger, you can easily get one. And I'll let you in on a secret: I cut the fabric strips for this wreath, but my six-year-old tied them to the hanger. Yes, he did. That six-year-old is now 16, so it's been awhile. . . but what sweet memories are tied up in this wreath! So this craft really is something you can make yourself or get your kids to make with you.

Be sure to look at all the great ideas at Chris's party!