Wednesday, October 12, 2011

My Mummy. Wreath, that is ;-)

So, this is technically the first entry of my blog.
Hello! *wave*
I'll backtrack later, but for right now I'm going to dive right on in with a crafty little project adapted from one of the best blogs on the entire internet, The Handmade Home, (which in turn was inspired by another favorite, The Nester).
I was reading Ashley's fantastic post and was quite inspired by the prospect of a wreath made out of fabric. It seemed like a wonderful project to dive in to, especially since the heat finally let off a little here in NorCal. October is always a wonky month for us as far as the weather is concerned (yesterday it was a lovely 76 degrees, the day before that it rained, today is looking to be 85, and tomorrow is anyone's guess). A gal such as myself with an air conditioner that is spotty at best must take advantage of cooler weather when it presents itself. And a gal with an opportunity like cooler weather, an abundance of muslin dropcloths, and a coupon for 50% off one regularly priced item at Jo-Ann's must also remedy certain unfortunate situations, such as not owning a glue gun. Yes, I know. Rest assured I was quite ashamed. But now I do. Oh yes. I do indeed. In fact, we are now on a first name basis, having gotten very well acquainted over this past weekend. I never could have done this without you, Sherman. <3
I was sitting on the couch working away on my little project and watching a movie with my husband, Mr. Wonderful, when I held up my in-progress wreath for him to give me an in-progress assessment, AKA "what do you think, love?"
He looked at it and said, "You know what would look good in there?" No, what? "A mummy's head for Halloween!" Brilliant. That's why I married him.
Off to the craft store we went once again, this time armed with a 20% off your entire purchase coupon (thank you Columbus Day Sale) for a plastic skull and a Bing Crosby Sings the Christmas Classics CD. Don't judge me.
I didn't take any pictures of the ensuing awesome, so I will re-enact my process to the best of my ability and will rely on your willful suspension of disbelief. Much obliged.
First, my workspace. For the purposes of this post, Sherman will play the part of Glue Gun, and any empty space you see will play the part of the 14 Inch Straw Craft Wreath that I picked up at Jo Ann's.

My next step was to tear strips from the muslin dropcloth that I'd had laying around for a while. For my birthday a few months back, I had the idea to fabricate a lovely awning outside using large dropcloths and a hodgepodge of assorted poles. It actually worked beautifully until the wind picked up and instead of an awning I had a sail, but that's another post for another day.
Anyway, muslin dropcloth! I tore it into strips:
And then it was a simple and time-consuming matter of ruffling the strips and fastening them to the wreath using trusty ol' Sherman.
Once the "base" wreath was completed (I did three layers....one outer, one facing forward, and one inner. You'll see.), it was time to prepare the skull. The skull is made of plastic that is soft enough to cut, so I cut out the eyes (I'm still debating whether or not it's feasible to put a light in there..it would be pretty cool, that's for sure), and also cut a hole in the top of the head for a thin strip of muslin to go through so it could tie on to the top of the wreath. Like this:

(Crappily drawn re-enactment take one, baby!)

I knew that I didn't want anything permanent since I hope to use this wreath for all of the seasons, so tying was the easiest option. Plus, I've been amazed at how blessedly forgiving muslin is, and how easy to work with. Seriously. I heart it so much.
Next I took a strip of muslin and wrapped it around the head, gluing where I felt like it as I went. It was all eye-balling at this point, which I loved. I am all about the eyeballs, yo! Then I tore a very thin strip, folded it in half, and knotted it at the base so it looked like this:
(And Part Deux)

I threaded the two open ends through the hole from the underside of the skull, threw one "arm" over the front of the wreath and disguised it under some folds, and brought the other one around the back and tied it, like so:



And from the front: BEHOLD!


Ta Da! I have to say, I'm pretty happy it turned out as well as it did. I'm looking forward to diving into more projects now that it's sewing machine/harvesting/catching-up-on-projects-that-I've-procrastinated-on-because-it's-hot weather. Hopefully this will kick start me into many happy Sherman related projects to come.
Happy Haunting!

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