Back when Zack was about 3 years old, I created an adorable fall themed t-shirt for him.  On the front, there was a woodpecker saying “Knock, Knock!”.  On the back, an owl answered “Who’s There?”  I thought it was a clever play on words, and I hated that he outgrew it so quickly.

This past weekend, that shirt popped into my mind and it occurred to me that the idea would be so much fun on a front door.  I pulled out my applique patterns from my sewing archives (I sound like Rachel Zoe!), and a whimsical autumn wreath was born.

This wreath is incredibly simple to put together – if you can use scissors and a glue gun, you have all the skills needed.  I even turned my original appliques into a free, downloadable template, so it takes all of the “I can’t draw!” fears off the table.  Follow along and create your own.

DIY “Knock, Knock!  Who’s There?” Wreath

The owl and woodpecker wreath can be put together for under $2o, and likely less since you probably have some of the supplies on hand.  The list is long, but it contains very inexpensive items. You will need:

• Scissors
• Glue gun and glue sticks
• Brown felt (9″x12″ size) – 2 sheets
• Black felt (9″x12″ size) – 2 sheets
• Olive green felt (9″x12″ size) – 1 sheet
• Gold felt (9″x12″ size) – 1 sheet
• Crimson felt (9″x12″ size) – 1 sheet
• White stiff felt (9″x12″ size) – 2 sheets
• Medium brown buttons (2) or brown fabric paint
• Tiny white button (1) or white fabric paint
• Needle
• DMC Embroidery floss – black and brown
• Polyfil
• Craft wire
• Ribbon (at least 1 1/2 inches wide)
• Grapevine wreaths – 18″ and 14″ diameters
• Sharpie marker
• Pencil
• Chalk or white paint marker
• Printer
• Barrette clips (optional)

Let’s get started on the wreath!

1.  Gather your supplies and download the free template I have put together for this project.  Click HERE for the templates, and the PDF will either open on your screen or save to your computer (depending upon how you have your browser set up to handle downloads).  Cut out each printed pattern.

2.  Trace your patterns onto the felt with a Sharpie marker (except for the black felt, which will need chalk or a white paint marker).  Cut out the patterns along the inside of the Sharpie line (do each shape won’t have a black outline). Each pattern tells you how many you should trace onto each color of felt.  Note: Per the template, the squiggly feather detail for the woodpecker is to be cut out of one of your black woodpecker cutouts.

3.  Set aside the leaves, speech bubbles, 1 brown owl body and 1 black woodpecker body, and assemble the rest of your owl and woodpecker with hot glue.  Use a sparing amount of glue so that it doesn’t ooze.  The white portion of the woodpecker is glued behind the wing detail that you previously cut.

4.  Add the wing detail onto the owl.  I used brown embroidery thread and a needle to free hand stitch along the blue line below.  I tried to take photos of my stitching, but it’s the exact same color as the felt and didn’t show up in the photos.  I stitched along both of the owls wings.

5.  Add eyes to both birds.  I had two brown wooden buttons in my button stash and hot glued them onto the owl.  I didn’t have a small enough white button for the woodpecker’s eye, so I just applied a dot of white fabric paint.

6.  Take the brown owl body cutout that you set aside and hot glue (along the edges only) it to the back of the owl.  Leave it open about 3 or 4 inches along the bottom.

In the open hole, stuff a bit of Polyfil to give the owl some shape.  If you can’t reach the top of the owl, gently push some Polyfil up with your scissors.  Once it’s stuffed, glue the hole closed.   Repeat the process for the woodpecker.

7.  Grab your speech bubbles.  With your pencil, write out “Knock, Knock!” on one and “Who’s There?” on the other.  Using your black embroidery floss and needle, embroider the phrases with a back stitch.  If you don’t know how to do that (and it is CRAZY easy once you learn it), check out this tutorial that Shelli from Needle in a Haystack shared with us a while back.  I also stitched around the edges of the speech bubble to give it a more whimsical look.  Remember, whimsy means that it doesn’t have to be perfect!

8.  Optional step: Hot glue some barrette clips on the back of your birds and speech bubbles. I used two on the birds (owl glued vertically and woodpecker glued horizontally) and one on each speech bubble (glued horizontally).  You could probably just hot glue the birds and speech bubbles directly onto the wreath, but I thought the clips would help them to stand up better (particularly the owl).

9.  Wire your two grapevine wreaths together with the craft wire.  Mine are wired in four places on the back of the wreaths.  Then, attach the birds and speech bubbles to the wreath using either the barrette clips or hot glue if you didn’t use the clips.  I always loop my wreath hanging ribbon around the wreath when I am attaching elements so that I know how it will hang.

10.  Lastly, hot glue your felt leaves around the wreath.  I put some around the owl to look like he was sitting in a tree (the grapevine represents the branches) and a few around the woodpecker.  The rest I added in clumps around empty parts of the wreath.  You can add more or less depending upon your own aesthetic.

11.  Hang the wreath with the ribbon in the place of your choice.  If you hang it on your front door, please make sure that the door isn’t directly exposed to the elements – I’m not sure how it would stand up to getting soaked from the rain or snow.

I often get asked how I hang my wreaths with ribbon.  I loop the ribbon around the wreath and tack it with a finishing nail on the top of my door.  I have one little hole on the top of my door and just use it for every wreath I hang.

I think this wreath is such a hoot!  You knew I was going to go there at some point, didn’t you?

Do you think you have time to put one of these wreaths together before you haul the Christmas decorations out of the attic?  If you have any questions, let me know!

I have just ended the most frustrating and agonizing search for lamp shades that has ever been.  And that was preceded by the most frustrating and agonizing search for table lamps that the world has ever seen.  Yes, only *I* could create such agony over something so trivial.

Anyway, I found my mid-mod lamps at the famed Austin City Wide Garage Sale.  They were exactly what I had been looking for – perfect shape and perfect color – if you could ignore the imperfect floral detailing.

I figured I would just have to repaint them.  But in the process of rewiring, I discovered that I could just turn the floral design around to the back of the lamp since the original back was just plain blue.  Nice!  I just sprayed the bases silver and thought all of the hard work was done.

WRONG!  Do you know how hard it is to find shades for a lamp of this shape?  Nearly impossible.  A traditional drum shade was too wide if it was tall enough and too short if it was skinny enough.  I looked at just about every store in town that sold lampshades, and must have brought home and returned half a dozen shades.  I searched online and found one (ONE!) possibility, but it was going to be $35 for shipping alone for one measly shade – and I needed two.  Yikes!

Out of desperation, I checked out the “self-adhesive” lamp shades that I had seen a while back in the fabric section of Hobby Lobby.  I’ve never needed to use these DIY shades before because I’m a white lampshade type of gal.  Lo and behold (and quite randomly, I’ll add), they had the exact shape and size of shade I was looking for.  And then I went to 3 other Hobby Lobbys to find another, but a girl’s got to do what a girl’s got to do.

Have you used one of these self-adhesive lampshades before?  They are quite easy to assemble and come in an array of sizes.

How to Cover a Self-Adhesive Lamp Shade

1.  The label on the shade should tell you how much fabric and trim you need for your shade.  I say should, because mine was actually labeled incorrectly.  Regardless, it’s pretty easy to figure it out yourself with a measuring tape.  I used a yard of fabric and about 6 yards of bias tape for 2 shades.

2.  Unwrap the shade and carefully remove the waxed paper covering stuck to the sticky side of the shade.  That paper serves as the pattern for cutting your fabric.  Iron your fabric if it’s wrinkled, pin the pattern on top of it, and just cut it out.

The instructions on the shade’s label say to add 1 inch all the way around, but you definitely don’t want to do that.  If you do, you’ll have way too much fabric to trim off at the end.

3.  I was using white linen, so I ironed my cut out piece (again) after I cut out the pattern.  Then, I laid it flat on the table and centered the lamp shade on top of it with the seam of the shade facing directly up.  If you are an OCD perfectionist, you’ll want to measure and find the exact center so that the 2 ends meet at the seam.  If you are like me, you’ll realize that the back of the shade will face the wall and life’s too short to worry about stuff like that.

4.  Use one hand to hold the end of the fabric taught, and gently roll the shade towards that hand.  That side of the shade will stick to the fabric.

There may be some bubbles in the fabric at this point, but that’s okay.  Reverse the process and roll the shade to the other side.

You can now take your hand and gently smooth out any bubbles in the fabric.  You’ll also want to trim any excess fabric off the shade on the top, bottom and back.

5.  Take a strip of bias tape close to the color of your fabric and use it to hide the seam on the back of the shade.  You can just run a bead of hot glue down the seam line and attach it.

{Yes, I know the shade is dented.  It’s on the back.  THREE Hobby Lobbys to find this, folks.  Desperation.}

Lastly, do the same thing around the edges of the shade.  Unless your shade is the same width around the top and bottom, make sure you use bias tape instead of ribbon (which will pucker).  You can buy packages of Wrights bias tape at most fabric stores, and it comes in an array of colors and widths.

I think my new custom shades look great on the vintage lamps.  The gray trim is the perfect touch for the room.

Have you used a self-adhesive shade before?  Did it go off without a hitch or did you run into any problems?