The Complete Guide To Making Burlap Rose Heart Wreaths

If you have ever wanted to know how to make a
 heart-shaped wreath covered in burlap roses,
 here is your complete guide!

Let's start with with wreath form. If you have ever looked for a

heart-shaped wreath form near Valentine's Day, you KNOW that

they are hard to find. Here is how to make your own for a very

small price in the size that YOU want. 

Make your own wreath forms with "Great Stuff" insulation

foam in a can. Yes, you need to keep kids and animals away

from this stuff until it hardens, but you can do it. 
Follow all the safety precautions listed on the can. 

Draw a heart on the paper of your choice ahead of time so 

the form comes out in the size and shape you want. 

Shake, shake, shake your booty your can of "Great Stuff" . 
Spray one then two lines of the foam along the lines you
have drawn. Make sure lines one and two touch each other
 on the sides Then spray a third line on top of the first two
 to give your heart some dimension. 

Sorry for the squiggly colored lines...I can spray the foam better than I can draw lines in PicMonkey.
This wreath was done mainly to show how to spray the foam 'cause I don't have a picture of how I made the first ones.

Keep your kids and animals away from your wreath forms
for at least eight hours. After that, they are not fragile (and 
won't stick to your kids and animals). 

Depending on how large you want your wreath forms, you can
get 3-4 forms out of one $4 can of foam...what a bargain!
Once you start spraying the foam, you have to keep going or
the can will seal itself off. Have plenty of newspaper work
 surface ready so you don't have to stop after one wreath form
(unless you only want one wreath form and don't care 
about wasting the rest of the can of foam). 

I hate to be the bearer of bad news BUT "Great Stuff' sort of
has a mind of it's own. Sometimes it puffs up a lot and then
sometimes it only puffs up a little. It has to do with the 
temperature and the humidity when you are spraying. 

2013 Wreath Forms...

2013 wreath forms puffed up a lot... a 2015 form did not.

2015 Wreath Form

You can add more spray foam to a wreath form if it doesn't get as puffy as you like. Usually by the time you can see

(about 15 minutes) how puffy your form is going to get, the can has sealed itself off and you need another can. 

I actually made the red burlap rose wreath in February 2014

but I have never done a blog post on it. By the time I used this

extra foam wreath form I made in 2013  (the others were

 used in The Key To My Heart Vignette) it had yellowed...

...

It probably would not have yellowed if it had not been left to the elements out in the back yard. 

Red burlap is only $3.99/yard at Hobby Lobby ...even cheaper is you use a coupon.

You can use any color or print of burlap for this project.

You will use burlap to wrap the foam heart form and

to make the easy roses. The above picture shows that I got

two yards of burlap but I did not use all of that. Depending

on the size of your heart form, you could get by with 1.5 yards.

Because the burlap has an fairly open weave, I wanted to paint

the foam to match my burlap so that none of the form would

 show through the weave of the burlap.

You might be able to skip the painting step if your burlap weave is tight and doesn't let the foam show through. 

Regular craft paint would work fine too to color the foam form. 

You can cut off parts of the foam form that you don't like

with a kitchen knife after the foam has cured for 8 hours. 

After the paint dries go ahead and add a hanger. It will be harder

 to add a hanger after you complete the next step, wrapping 

the wreath. I used thin wire wrapped around the top of the 

wreath form. You might want to use a different type hanger

Cut some strips of burlap to cover the wreath form.

The step allows you to not have to cover the entire surface of

 the wreath with burlap flowers...sort of a "fool the eye" trick.

The strips that were used to cover this wreath were 2" wide.

The longer you can cut the strips, the less you have to add 

new strips (but don't cut all your burlap this size...the burlap

for the roses will need to be wider).

 Use straight sewing pins to hold your first burlap strip in 

place as you start to wrap the wreath form in an overlapping 

style. Also use the pins to add new strips and to make the burlap

 strips conform to the shape of the wreath.

Your width of strips might need to be smaller if your wreath is smaller than this  15" wreath. 

When you come to the hanger part of your wreath, wrap

the strips so they do not cover it up on the back. 

After you have wrapped the whole wreath in overlapping strips

and pinned it in place, add a little glue (one that dries clear is

 best) on the pins to keep them in place. 

Now comes the fun part...making the burlap roses!

You can experiment to see how large or small you want your 

roses to be. I wanted to make a few roses as possible so I made

mine kinda large. They were about 4" in diameter.

The strips that were cut for this size rose were 4" by 24".

If you want smaller roses, make the width less (and maybe the

length too...you will need to see what appeals to you).

Whatever size of strip you decide on, the technique of making

the burlap rose is the same. 

Have a sewing needle threaded with a long doubled thread (that

matches your burlap color) knotted and ready.

Fold the width of the burlap strip in half. 

Turn down the folded corner edge of the strip to meet the 

raw cut edge of the strip. 

Start rolling the end point towards the fold for 1.5" to 2".

This will be the center of your rose. 

Take a stitch or two near the cut raw edge of the strip to

hold the now-rolled burlap in place. Knot it to hold it.

With the same needle and thread, start sewing a running stitch 

about 1/4" from the cut raw edge. Be sure to catch both sides

of the burlap in this stitch.  The stitch does not need to be tight. 

Continue the straight running stitch along the whole edge.

Start sliding the burlap strip down along the thread to gather it.

Keep gently sliding the burlap strip down the thread until all

of the strip has been gathered into a ruffle. 

From the sewn down roll you made at the first of the strip,

start rolling the gathered strip around it. You may need to 

adjust the gathers as you go.  Keep the raw cut edge of the

rose lined up as you roll. 

Using the same thread that you began with, you can take 

stitches on the raw edge (not the folded edge) of the roll

 to  keep it in place as you continue to 

add more of the gathered burlap onto the roll. 

To conceal the cut edge on the end of the rolled rose, turn it under

  and stitch it down to hide it and keep it from fraying as much.

Ta-Dah! You did it!

My wreath took ten of these roses to cover the top surface 

of the wreath. Because I used the same material to cover the

wreath form as to make the rolled roses, it is not as obvious

that there aren't many roses and they don't cover the sides

(especially when you see if from the street and not up close).

Attach the rolled burlap roses to the wreath with a hot glue gun.

You may need to hold each rose in place until the hot glue dries

a little since the rose has a kind of uneven and small base. 

You will probably have lots of burlap strings to cut off to

"tidy up" the finished wreath.

Here is the wreath on my front door in 2014...

It is smaller and simpler than most wreaths that I have for other

holidays on the front door but I like the change occasionally. 

The thin wire (attached to a screw in the top of the door) 

that  actually supports the wreath is (almost)

 hidden by a cuter red grosgrain ribbon. 

We had to replace the front door since it started "bleeding" 

the glue that was partially holding it together. You can see it

a little in the above pictures but it got much worse over the year.

Also it was not very energy efficient and the afternoon sun

 comes hot and heavy on that side of the house. 

 Out with the old...

...in with the new...

Here is the carpenter, Adam, replacing the door and transom and also most of the trim around the door.

Some of the wooden trim had rotted. 

The new door and transom have energy efficient glass and

 the mullions on the glass are thicker and built onto the glass

 and are not just a thin pop-on window grille (that fell off at lot).

The doors actually look a lot the same...I did not dislike

 the old one. It probably had a nicer proportion of glass. 

We just reused the old door hardware.

 I had to "initiate" the  new door with a screw in the top to

 hold wreaths that I want to suspend with fishing line or thin wire...

...we don't have to mention this to Tom Kat m'kay?

Here is the new door with it's first wreath,

the Red Burlap Rose Heart Wreath!

I am sharing this post over at 

Between Naps On The Porch's Metamorphosis Monday

A Stroll Thru Life's Inspire Me Tuesday

Carolyn's Homework Creative Inspiration Link Party

Savvy Southern Style's Wow Us Wednesday

DIY by Design's Link Party #205

Mostly Food & Crafts' Friday Frenzy