Trash to Treasure, or what I did with my stuff

In a recent post I discussed purging my t-shirts from my closet in an attempt to declutter. Well, I thought it might be nice to re-purpose that fabric.  I've also been wanting to make a wreath more suitable for our front porch than the fall wreath currently in place that I won at a ladies night for losing the most turns at Bunco. The one that hung there until late this summer when a dear friend reminded me that it was no longer fall (and hadn't been for some time) and I finally took it down, only to put it back up two months later.

After a quick google search for rag wreaths, I found this tutorial. This was one of many that popped up, but it seems straightforward enough, right?

So I went to Hobby Lobby and purchased a wire wreath (less than $2.50).

Then I came home and started on the fabric strips.  First I cut a small starting point and tried ripping the fabric. I don't suggest using that method.  T-shirt fabric does rip, but not in a very even manner.  On my second attempt, I just eyeballed the size I wanted and cut the strips. Worked much better that time. I then decided to try and be a little more efficient, and neatly folded the t-shirt in half, eyeballed and cut. Even better.

I cut from the bottom up and layed the strips aside until I had cut the t-shirt up to the sleeve. I then folded the strips, cut, folded again and cut to get the size strips I thought I would need.

I didn't use the same types of knot as the above tutorial. I folded the strip in half, threaded the open ends through the wire, pulled them through the loop made by folding, and then pulled the ends tight to make a knot around the wire.

Here I go!  Knot away.....

I finished 5/8's of the wreath on day 1.

Here is the finished project (day 2).

And here it is actually hanging up on my door.  I'll probably get a 'real' wreath holder, but part of the t-shirt hem works really well for now!

What cool wreaths do you have hanging on your door? And do you have any other ideas for me? Share!