St. Patrick's Day Decorations

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Decorating for St. Patrick’s Day is a new thing ’round here. I mean, the most I decorated before kids was being sure to don something green before heading out to the bar to grab a green beer. Pinches hurt and well, I’m a sissy who bruises easily.

I have a confession though: because I decorate for each holiday now, I use the exact same wreaths over and over for both inside and outside. There’s a holiday every month and I’m not doing another great Christmas “Blood, Sweat and Tears” wreath ever again, so using the same basic forms makes it quick and easy to update the house.

I have another confession: I love, love, love garlands and bunting. Little ones on cakes make me sigh. Big ones draped across an entire wall for a party make me swoon. Ones the cost $7 to make? Swoooooooon!

Click on “Read More” to see a few little adornments any leprechaun would love!

The fabric bunting (or garland) we made today is adorable and inexpensive – and it doesn’t SCREAM St. Patrick’s Day, which I love! It cost me $7.65 including tax, and that was purchasing everything (three fat quarters and the bias tape)! Oh, and I had enough fabric that I could have made two full buntings if I had more bias tape, so keep that in mind.

Also, this post includes the “instructions” on how to make the simple wreath we hung outside for the holiday. It’s laughable how simple, but hey – my 2 year old doesn’t nap, so all crafts need to be quick and simple around here and most need to include her.

A Little Trimming Any Leprechaun Would Love

As I mentioned, I adore the very trendy garlands and buntings everywhere. They make me smile every time I see one and are so easy to cater to any event, holiday, or room design. I didn’t want to shell out the money for one when I knew I could make my own for much less. So I thought about how it could be quickly and easily made and came up with this.

For the quick bunting, you will need:

double fold bias tape (quilt binding, .875 wide by 3 yards. For my 5-ish foot bunting, I had about a yard+ left over). About $3 (without a coupon at JoAnn’s), but I got it for $1.79 with a 40% off coupon.
a selection of fabrics. I used three fat quarters which are $1.99 each at JoAnn’s, but I got one 40% off.
a sewing machine, a ruler, pins, fabric pencil (or chalk), and pinking shears.

I created a 5 inch wide by 6 inch high triangle template from cardboard and used it to trace the pattern onto my fabric (after having folded the fabric “right sides” together). I pinned the fabric so it wouldn’t move and then pinned the fabric inside the traced template before cutting it out with pinking shears.

After turning the fabric (“right sides” facing out), I sewed up the three sides (not the top) with a simple stitch. I have not yet become familiar with the other 159 stitches of which my sewing machine is capable. Perhaps one day. More likely, perhaps not.

After measuring where I wanted to hang it, I knew I needed to space the triangles about an inch apart along the bias tape, so I pinned the top of each flag lined up with the crease in the bias tape and then sewed it all together.

By the way, remember to back stitch periodically. Just sayin’… I might have forgotten to do that until the very, very, very end. Have I mentioned that I am only a crafting sewist?

I included an “action” shot showing that I can, in fact, use the sewing machine. Barely, but I can operate it without stitching a finger into my crafts. Yay me!

This “project” took about 35 minutes once I gathered all of the supplies. The most time-consuming part was ironing the fabric (of which I might have cut a few corners by only ironing the part I thought I would use). Yep, that’s me taking lazy to a new level, right?

Although this isn’t where it’s going to hang, it was the best place to show you what the finished bunting would look like.

A Simple Wreath Your Kids Can Help Create

I used to have grand visions of wreaths hanging around the house (inside and out) for each holiday. Then, I created what is lovingly referred to as the “Blood, Sweat, Tears” wreath and I don’t have that desire anymore.

Last Christmas I jumped on the band wagon and did an entirely homemade, burlap-inspired Christmas. The tree and tree skirt, the ornaments, the decor pieces, the wall art, the stockings – all handmade and all burlap (well, not ALL burlap).

I spent a good bit of time (but not a lot of money) on the wreath because there were like 100 Pinterest Pins that boasted how “quick and easy” making your own burlap wreath would be!

Ah, the dark side of Pinterest has revealed itself to all of us by now, I’m sure.

After coming up with my own darn way to make it, the wreath is burlap and everyone says it is gorgeous but… I had to hide my hands for a week until all the cuts closed up from the twisting and twisting (and twisting and twisting) of floral wire. Never. Again.

Thus was born my desire for the “wow, that was a really fast and easy” wreath. And now, I just stick something (easily removable) on the burlap wreath so that I can include it in all of the holiday decorating.

For the very quick, very simple wreath, you will need:

a Styrofoam wreath (mine is 12″ because that’s what I had on hand),
8 strips of fabric, cut 1.5″ wide by about 24 inches long (fold it over and cut 12 inch strips),
straight pins or dressmaker’s pins,
ribbon for hanging, and some
decorations for the wreath (ours were chosen by the 2 year old).

Fabric over a Styrofoam wreath can easily be changed without too much of a bother. Yesterday this wreath still had the Valentine’s Day red fabric covering it, but after about 15 minutes, it’s now our St. Patty’s Day wreath.

My 2 year old helped with this wreath it is that easy. A parent or older child needs to start/end each strip, but the kiddo can have fun wrapping it around the wreath form and choosing the decorations.

Start with a strip of fabric pinned to the wreath form with two straight pins. Wrap the fabric around the wreath form in a diagonal direction (Elise learned what diagonal meant today). When we got to the end of a piece of fabric, I started the next one at the end of the previous one and on top of it, and affixed both the strips with the same two pins.

We used a chalkboard pick (from Michael’s for $0.99) for our Valentine’s Day wreath and Elise wanted to keep it for this one, so we placed it in the same spot. I had to help her line up the fabric to go around the pick, but she picked up the wrapping from there.

She couldn’t figure out where she wanted the shamrock, so we tried a few places (multiple times) until she put up her finger and said, “that’s it!” I stuck that thing in there with a straight pin and quickly moved on before she could change her mind.

Elise REALLY wanted to use the little hat decoration (leftover from last year’s homemade shamrock and Leprechaun hat garland), but I couldn’t figure out a way to keep it intact and not have it get crushed from hitting the door over and over. You might notice we used it to adorn the Blood, Sweat and Tears Wreath above, and that made her very happy.

We also have some other decorations (a paper chain garland and Elise’s St. Patrick’s Day artwork) already gracing our walls and we figure we’re off to a great start making the house festive for our next play date.

What do you think about our little decorations? Let us know in the comments section – we love hearing from you!