Turkey Felt Fall Wreath Tutorial



gobble gobble gobble

 I wanted to share this tutorial because I was seeing this type of wreath pinned over and over on pinterest and I had a blast making several of them for different family members.  I added the turkey myself, but other than that I think it is very much like the inspiration piece.  Also, FYI...I am new to making tutorials so I don't have a picture of each step.  Once I start working I sometimes forget to snap a picture of what I did...OOPS!  Well...let's get started



Step 1 - Cover a wreath form in yarn.  This one was 12"...but I did a 10" for Halloween and a 14" for a family member.  I think all of them turned out fine.  The 14" looked a little thin, but overall was alright. I wrapped first with some brown yarn I had leftover to fill out the form a little and then wrapped around that with a marbly green  (lots of shades of green, some red and even a little brown).  The original brown is peeking through, but I really liked the way that looked.

Step 2ish - Cut a piece of felt into eighths.  I used regular felt from the craft store, but I have ordered some better quality felt and I do like the colors of the higher quality felt.  there are SOOOOOO many choices.  After cutting the felt find a pencil or other cylindrical object (mine is a pinwheel stick).  Wrap the felt around the stick.  I wrapped a little asymmetrically to make each piece look a little different. 

Step 3 - Put a bead of hot glue down the outer edge of the felt and then roll it onto itself.  I found this is the best way to avoid burning the bejeesus out of your fingers.  After rolling it up pull it off the pencil or pinwheel stick. 

Step 4 - repeat steps 2 and 3 about a gajillion times...until you have a healthy pile of felt rollups.   I used  10 colors and did at least 4 roll ups of each color.  I had 6 rollups left when I finished the wreath.  I really just added this picture because I liked all the colors together.

Step 5ish - This is where I left out a few pics.  I started with three felt rollups on each side of the wreath .  I'd say I left about a quarter of the yarn wrapped wreath showing at the top.  After that I started adding rollups down the left side.  There really isn't any method to my madness.  I just add any color I wanted trying not to have any of the same colors touching.  If you use fewer colors it really isn't any big deal if they touch.  

Step 6 - Repeat on the other side.  I didn't bother covering all the way to the center, because I knew I would be adding the turkey at the center.  

Step 7ish - Cut another 2 pieces of felt into fourths hot dog style (meaning fold the felt long ways before cutting).  this way you end up with four long pieces.  Put a bead of hot glue down the long edge and then fold the felt over on itself.  I forgot a picture of the first two parts, but you end up with eight long teardrop pieces of felt.  The two orange pieces are for the turkey's feet.  If you are not making a turkey, all your pieces can be the same color or you can mix up the colors.

 I forgot to take any pictures of the turkey assembly.  I hope to get better at this.  Take each felt teardrop and make a felt flower.  Here is a YouTube tutorial of the process...it shows how to make three flowers, but the first one is how I make the turkey.

After making all the felt pieces into flowers I glued them into the middle of the wreath where the rollups come together.  this makes a great fluffy pom body for the turkey.  You can't see it in the final picture, but I glued the orange flowers to the bottom to make the turkey feet.  



Final step - make the turkey head.  Again no pics of the step by step...sorry.  I took a scrap of brown felt folded it in half and cut out a head shape...that way I had a way to put a pipe cleaner int he middle so the head will stand up.  I made the turkey neck about 4 inches long so I would have plenty of room to adhere it to the wreath.  I put the pipe cleaner in the middle and then glued the two pieces together.  then I used more felt scraps to create the beak, waddle and eyes.  My dad really thinks he needs google eyes, but I didn't have any so I made a google looking eye out of felt.  



So....I hope that was tutorially enough.  I have another one to post later about how to make felt hair embellishments.  I think I might have stepped over into the crafty abyss...felt is my new pest friend.  Oh well...this turkey makes me insanely happy.  I am so glad that tiny things like this make me so happy.  Not hard to turn a bad day around when roughly 13 pieces of felt and some yarn can make a person giddy!  Have a great day!

to the moon and back,

Sarah