A noodle wreath tutorial

With 3 kids, I have a ton of swimming noodles.  Some in good condition...some others have seen better days.  What to do with these not so nice noodles?  Make a wreath of course. 

I cannot take credit for this idea actually.  This month's Country Living magazine had a few ideas on what to use pool noodles for other than the standard floatation device.  Also, Sew to Speak had a cute yarn version of this wreath (with a wreath form) as a class awhile ago.  So I took those ideas and tweaked to come up with this. 

So here goes...

First take the tube and bend into a circle.  Get the handy-dandy duck tape and tape away.  I actually taped and set mine down for a few hours and then came back to it and the duck tape had wiggled/pulled down a bit and the circle was now an oval.  To fix that, just add some tape long ways as well as around the 2 connecting ends. 

 

Then I found a bunch of scrap fabric.  I choose a variety so that it would be super colorful.  You can use all the same fabric if you like too.  You need to cut 3" wide strips.  I ended up using 14 yards of 3" strips to cover this.  It is really long but I would think 1 yard cut into 3" strips of all one type of fabric would probably work. 

 

Then sew all your pieces together.  I used about a 1/2" seam allowance.  Press seams open and then iron lengthwise. 

 

 

Now comes the fun part.  I liked this so much better than the yarn version because I get bored easily and this goes so much quicker wrapping with fabric.  I used straight pins (dressmaker variety) to attach my end.  Duck tape would work too.  (See my extra duck tape I had to add to keep it in a circle.)

 

 

When you get all the way around, use some more pins to secure the end fabric. 

 

 

Ok now onto some decoration for it.  I cut some felt leaves. 

 

 

I made some felt flowers. 

 

The pin is just to hold it together so you can baste the bottom secure.  Using a hand needle, sew back and forth along the bottom so all of the layers are secure.  Then you can cut the flower open. 

 

I actually used pins to attach my flowers so I could reuse them down the road when I get bored and want to change things up again.  Or you could use a hot glue gun to really secure them down.  I did that on a previous yarn wreath and it worked like a charm.  I tried adding a little bird too but then decided against it....too busy?  Anyway...get an old pool noodle and give this a try!

 

 Happy crafting!!

 

 

Thanks for stopping by!

Michelle