How to make a fabric wreath with gorgeous velvet + buttons

With Christmas decorating time upon us, let’s talk about how to make a fabric wreath.

This is a great project for all of the tiny bits of fabric you have hanging out in your stash. And if you have a lot of buttons that don’t have matches, you’ll finally have a project that’ll use them up.

First we’ll cover a wreath form with hand torn velvet fabric. The velvet really adds some visual texture you can’t get from other fabrics and the lush look of it is perfect for the season.

After that, I’m going to show you how to take old buttons, cover them with fabric and add them to the wreath to make a custom no-sew fabric wreath you’ll love to display.

So grab a glue gun and let me show you how to make a fabric wreath step by step.

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How to make a fabric wreath supplies

• Foam wreath form: 10-12″
• 1/3 yard velvet fabric or about 8 yards of 2″ wide velvet ribbon
• Fabric scissors (always have my Kai 7230s near!)
• Fusible fleece or batting
• Buttons in various sizes: no smaller than 1/2″, about 100 total
• Fabric scraps
• Glue gun + sticks (This is my favorite one)

What kind of fabric should I use for my DIY fabric wreath?

I’m suggesting velvet for this wreath, but any woven fabric should work. My first choice after velvet would be linen because it tears and frays beautifully.

You could also use silk chiffon or cotton to cover the wreath form.

To cover the buttons, you can use any kind of fabric scraps. Try to choose fabrics with a lot of visual texture like brocade, silk, linen, wools and tweeds.

Can I use ribbon to cover my wreath?

Of course you can use ribbon to cover your DIY fabric wreath. Velvet ribbons are beautiful. Just realize that this is a more expensive option since you’ll need about 6-9 yards to cover your wreath and make a bow.

This shop on Etsy has a great selection of silk velvet you can tear your own ribbons from as I’ll show you as well as yards of silk velvet ribbons in a wide variety of colors. I’ve used them on a lampshade before, so I know they’re of excellent quality.

How to make a fabric wreath step by step

Tearing velvet into velvet ribbons

The first step in making a fabric wreath is to tear strips of velvet that’ll cover the wreath form.

Basically you’ll be making velvet ribbon out of the yardage of velvet. Skip this step if you’re using ribbon to cover your form.

Lay out your velvet with the selvage edge parallel to your work surface. Make a small cut perpendicular to the selvage about 2″ from the raw edge. Tear from selvage to selvage.

From here, pull away a few of the loose threads to expose some fringe on both sides of the strip. Now you have a frayed velvet ribbon.

Make 5 more strips in this same manner. You might need a little more or less depending on how big your wreath form is, but 6 strips is a good start.

Cover the wreath

Anchor the velvet ribbon to the wreath form’s back with some hot glue. Wrap the ribbon tautly around the wreath form. When you get to the end of a strip, glue down the end.

Glue the next ribbon over the end of the last one and keep wrapping until you’ve covered the wreath entirely/

Adding fleece to buttons

Why do you need to add a layer of fleece to the buttons? The fleece will make for a smooth surface that’ll fill in the sunken surface of the button and make the fabric sit nicer on the finished buttons.

Add a dab of hot glue to each button, then press it onto fleece or batting. You should be able to glue several buttons on a scrap of fleece.

After that, trim away the extra fleece. Continue this process until all your buttons have a layer of fleece covering them.

Covering buttons with fabric

Lay a button fleece side down on a small scrap of fabric. Cut around the button with your scissors, leaving a good border around the edges. If your fabric is thick, keep the border smaller to cut down on bulk.

Hold the button and fold over an edge of fabric around the button. Add a small dab of hot glue and press the fabric in place. Keep folding back fabric around the button, adding glue until the button is covered.

If at any point the fabric seems bulky, cut away the excess in the middle. It’s not as critical to do this as it would be if you were making fabric covered buttons with metal cover buttons for a coat, but it’ll help your crafty fabric buttons we’re making here a little less poofy on the wreath.

Keep covering buttons until you have enough to cover your wreath. Periodically, you can lay out buttons to keep track of how many more you need.

My 12″ wreath took about 100 buttons ranging in sizes from 1/2″ to 1 1/2″.

Glue on the buttons

Lay out your buttons on the wreath. Try not to put the same color or size next to each other. I like to place my largest buttons around the wreath at random then fill in with the smaller ones.

Use a dab of hot glue on the back side of each button to anchor the buttons on the wreath.

Add a bow

To finish off your DIY fabric ribbon wreath, tie a bow with 2 pieces of your hand torn ribbons. I actually sewed mine together in the middle and made a double bow with this helpful video tutorial.

And that’s how to make a fabric wreath with velvet ribbon and DIY fabric covered buttons. Make one for your front door this holiday season!