I’ve loved crafting since I was a child and used to drive my mum mad with all my projects and leaving trails of glitter, paper and ribbons everywhere. One of my earliest memories is sitting at the kitchen table in winter time making a Christmas card for my gran. It was made with white card with a little lamb cut out and stuck onto it and I remember covering the lamb with silver glitter and being so pleased with how sparkly & pretty it was.

Over the years I’ve kept up my crafting in various forms and when my daughter was little I made all her hair clips and little hair bows and also decorated hats & berets to order for customers.  I love working with lace and pretty buttons and sequins and made a gorgeous beret for Dannii Minogue using vintage lace & lots of sparkles when she first worked on the X-Factor and she sent me such a lovely thank you card (my claim to fame haha!)

I have previously blogged about making my lace lanterns here and I still occasionally  make them for parties & weddings and for gifts.

Here I’m going to show step by step how to make an indoor garland or wreath using ribbons, brooches and pretty buttons.

I have boxes of fabric, ribbons,sequins,buttons and brooches for all my crafting projects and the first thing I do when starting any new project is decide which theme and colours I’m going to use. I then put all the ribbons etc onto a tray along with jars of buttons and different coloured threads so that I can easily find what I need.

In this case for making a garland you will  need a round ring oasis to start off with.  You then wrap broad ribbon or strips of fabric around it until it’s completely covered.

Once the ring is completely covered put a stitch in the last piece of ribbon to stop it from unravelling and then you can cover with  lace if you prefer a more neutral background.

Again put a few stitches in at the end to hold the lace in place and now you’re ready to make your ribbon roses & bows to decorate. Ribbon roses are super easy to make and look very effective when finished off with buttons and sequins etc.

Before I start making the rose I seal the end of the ribbon with a lighter as this stops it from fraying.  Obviously be very careful doing this and don’t use any highly flammable materials. I then start to fold the ribbon and secure each fold with a stitch shaping it into a rosette and keeping going until it has 2 or more layers.

Cut the ribbon once you have the desired shape and again seal the end with a lighter and fold over at the end and secure with a stitch before adding buttons and sequins to the centre to finish it off.

I also made some fabric flowers to add to the garland by hemming strips of fabric and then stitching into rosettes.

You can then start attaching your rosettes to the ring by stitching them onto the lace or ribbon. I then usually add some bows by tying the ribbon round the ring before tying into a bow and stitching into place and also sew some buttons on and pin a few brooches depending upon what look you’re going for. Alternatively you can just pin brooches onto the garland to make it super sparkly and I still love mine which I made with vintage brooches last year.

To hang your garland tie a narrow ribbon in a knot at the top and then tie in a bow.

Happy crafting!

Louise xxx