Tie Wreath Tutorial

I've finished another of my crafty August 2012 goals. I've put together the tie wreath for my father. This is a no sew project too! So, this was such a quick and easy project I might as well do a tutorial for it, right? There are several versions of this floating around on the web, so I don't know how many I looked at before I gave this a try. I thought it would be a lot harder than it actually turned out to be, so I'm very happy I gave it a shot. I know my husband has quite a few ugly ties that I might make into another one for our door, but we'll see. Here's what you'll need to do to put one of these together for yourself...

Ingredients:
15 ties in the colors of your choosing
About 50 straight pins
One 12 inch Styrofoam wreath form
3-4 inches ribbon for hanging the wreath

Directions:
1) Lay out the ties in the order you want to add them to the wreath. This will allow you to check the color transitions before you start putting them on the wreath. Once they're on the wreath it is a bit of a pain to change them around. Set aside one special tie to make a bow for the wreath.

I added a couple ties to my wreath layout after taking this picture. I used 14 ties to wrap around the wreath and set aside one of my grandfather's old silk ties for the ribbon.

2) Take a tie and pin the small end of the tie to the back of the wreath form. Wrap the tie around the wreath form until it hangs over the edge by about 2-3 inches. Pin in place through the top of the tie.

3) Take another tie and pin its small end to the back of the wreath form about 1 inch away from the middle of the wrapped tie next to it. This will ensure that all of the areas are covered and that the ties will overlap as they get wrapped. Wrap the tie around the wreath form and pin in place through the top of the tie.


4) Repeat steps 2 and 3 until entire wreath form is covered.

5) Pin inside the tie as shown in the picture. If you want you can secure the tie toward the center of the fat end and toward the sides to keep everything in place. Once the tie is pinned inside, then you can remove the pin from showing on the outside on the top of the tie. Repeat this step until all ties are secured and no pins are showing on the front of the wreath.

 6) Tie the last remaining tie into a bow. Determine where on the wreath you want it to be and secure it with pins behind the knot of the bow.

7) Fold ribbon in half and pin ends together onto the back of the top of the wreath.

8) Hang on a nail or hook on your door and you're all done! :)