For years, I have been saving my wooden spools as the thread that they held has run out. I just couldn't bring myself to part with such beautiful objects and hoped that one day I would find a way to repurpose them. In 2019, I was able to turn some into ornaments for our holiday tree as well as create a mini-garland, which you can check out here.
However, I still had a bag full of wooden spools and no idea what to do with them. That is, until last year.
As I was scrolling Pinterest for ideas, I found people who had transformed their wooden thread spools into the most incredible wreaths! I absolutely loved this idea so I read a few blog posts on how it was done/ what supplies I might need and then purchased the items I was missing (*hint: I only purchased one item for this project!).
Below is how I wound up creating my own spool wreath using primarily upcycled elements! If you want this project to go by more quickly, you can opt to use a hot glue gun. For me personally, though, I enjoyed knowing that I was using discarded materials that could all be returned to the soil or be deconstructed and used in other projects (such as the non-compostable fabric scraps).
Let's Get Started!
For this DIY, you will need the following supplies:
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Wire Wreath Frame (Such as this one that I purchased from Joann's)
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Wooden Thread Spools (The number you will need depends entirely on how large your wreath frame is! I wound up having a small handful of spools leftover after my project)
- Handful of small, scrap fabrics
- Something to wrap your wreath frame in, i.e. grosgrain, bias tape, etc
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Basic Sewing Supplies, i.e. thread, scissors, hand sewing needle
- Twine or Rope (Optional)
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Nice music, to set the tone for the day!
To begin this tutorial, go through your scrap stash (I know you have one!) and pick out the fabrics you want to incorporate into your spool wreath. When I was doing this, I tried to find complimentary fabrics that all looked really nice together. You could opt to use a whole bunch of different scraps or keep your palette limited to just 2 or 3 different fabrics. There is no wrong way to put this together!
Once you have your fabrics picked out, go ahead and cut them into various sized rectangular strips. To determine the width of the strips, I would lay my spools next to the fabric and cut my fabric as wide as the spool was.
Now you can begin assembling your spools with your various fabrics! Simply roll our fabric around your spool, then pin in place. Be sure to cut off any excess fabric so that you can use it on another spool.
Continue this process until all your spools are covered.
With a hand sewing needle and thread, it is now time to begin hand sewing your fabric strips at the point in which you pinned them. Don't worry too much about the color of the thread matching your various fabrics. You will be able to hide the hand sewn seam once you start assembling the wreath.
When all of your spools are completed and the fabric has been sewn, take a little break and grab some water/ stretch your legs! I know that for me, after this part was complete, I needed to move around a bit before tackling the next part of the project.
When you are ready to dive back in, go ahead and grab your wire wreath frame and whatever material you have chosen to wrap it with. For me, I would up needing to use 4 different kinds of material, but that's ok because the majority of the material was masked once I added my spools!
Pin the beginning edge of your material to your wire frame like so.
Wrap your material around and around your frame until you wind up back where you started. If you need to add a different material during this process, simply pin at the end of where the first material runs out and then again at the start of your new material.
Once your material has been pinned in place, it's time to secure it with some stitches! You don't need to be too careful with how your stitches look (as you can cover them up with wooden spools later),
you just want to ensure your material isn't going to unravel from your wreath frame.
Now comes the most fun part of the entire project: Adding your wooden spools! Start by picking a spool and a spot on your wreath. Play with how you might want to position the spool and then sew it into place!
To do this, simply sew through the central opening of your spool and then secure it to the material wrapped around your frame. Depending on the size of your spool, you may want to do a few passes to make sure it is really secured.
Continue this process until your wreath is filled with all of your beautiful spools! Be sure to twist each spool so that you don't see any stitches from the first few steps on your wooden spools.
Finally, if you would like, you can add a bit of rope or twine to the back of your wreath so that it can hang on your wall. I added mine by sewing a bit of twisted rope to the back of the material that was wrapped around my wreath. You could do the same or even opt to simply tie a piece of ribbon or twine around the wreath through the central opening.
Et voila! You have successfully completed your very own DIY Spool Wreath, perfect for hanging during the holidays, or all throughout the year!
I hope you enjoyed working on this project with me – I personally had a blast! If you would like to share your projects with me, feel free to tag me on Instagram at @untitledthoughts . Until next time – Bonne Couture!