Jute Shamrocks (tutorial)

With St-Patrick's day in just 2 days, I think it's about time I show you the only St-Pattie's craft I got to make. Now, I've NEVER celebrated St-Pattie's Day or anything, so having done one decoration is big for me.

I can't wait to have kids, though! It seems all holidays are more exciting with kids around :) Then I'll decorate like crazy. I love what Love Sweet Love did for her kids last year, I mean, how fun is THAT?!

Anyway, until then...

I made some jute wrapped shamrocks for this year. I got the inspiration around Valentine's Day when I saw the mini-wreath that Kelsey at Tattered and Inked made. What caught my eye was not only the wreath but the super mini jute heart that she embellished it with.

That made me want to make some heart ones, which I did, but I felt silly sharing that 2 weeks after V-Day, so you will have to wait til next year to see them. They are also half finished... so yeah.

Since I was on a roll, I decided to make some shamrock shaped ones as well!



They are a little on the fancier/classy side of things, I find. I made them to hang on my bedroom lamps, as you can see. I like them, they bring a little bit of festivity without clashing too much with my bedroom decor.

Here's how I made them.

Supplies:
~ garden wire, from Dollarama, 1$ (I made 6 hearts and 2 shamrocks with it, and probably around half left; I'm sure it will come in handy for an other project)
~ jute/twine, Wal-Mart, 2$ (again, there's lots left, but I did get it especially for this project)
~ twist ties, or garden twist ties, Dollarama, 1$ for 2
~ green yarn, Dollarama, 1$
~ green shimmery ribbon, Dollarama, 1$

Total: 4$ for 6 hearts and 2 shamrocks and LOTS of leftover!



I printed the shamrock shape as reference since it's a little hard to freehand it. Just shape the garden wire by following the outline.


(If you're wondering: The first time I printed it I found it too small, and then reprinted on the same side instead of backside by accident. Didn't want to waste more so just highlighted the one I wanted and continued.)

I created 3 shapes of shamrocks so that the final shape would be a little thicker. One I did with the knick all at the same place in all 3 wire shaped, but that created a weakness at the point where they all met, so the second shamrock I made it so the knicks would be at different points. Dunno if it really made it that much better, see why later.



They didn't quite keep together that well, so I had to wrap the 3 shapes with twist ties. I was so happy when I found this stuff at Christmas at the Dollarama! It's so multipurpose, and you can cut your own length.

You'll want to arrange the 3 wires so they make a sort of triangle (as in not all in a line, but so that each touches the other 2), and then wrap with the twist ties. It gets a little tricky arranging the shapes, they get tangled up together, but rather do this step than have to wrestle later as you wrap the jute around.



Remember how I said I did the knicks at different points in the shape? Well that backfired a little. See it's really hard to get all 3 shapes exactly the same. So I was left with a bend that the wires didn't quite bend all at the same point, and I couldn't really fix it at this point. It's not the end of the world, but just something to keep in mind. Once it's wrapped in jute it doesn't really show, it's just wider at that point.



Next step: wrap in jute. This is very tedious work and nice to do while watching something so you don't get too bored.





Also, since the bundle of jute will not fit through the hole in the shamrock, you will have to cut a certain length out. I think I did about 5 times my "wing span" (you know when you stretch your arms out and apart). And it's quite annoying pulling the whole length through every time, so I tied it like so:



The corners are especially tricky to wrap. They just wrap all wrong (see in picture below left side?). I found that if you wrapped it once, then let it unravel and wrap it up again you get the best results. It seems easier to wrap it right when you aren't passing it through the center every turn.



After you've wrapped for what seems like an eternity, you'll come to the end, hooray! Of course, the smaller the shape, the easier it is. Shamrocks have a lot of twist and turns which makes it quite long to make. The hearts were much quicker to make.





Of course, you could leave it like that, but I wanted to add a little green. So I wrapped it with multi-green colored yarn. I can easily remove it if I change my mind later since it's just tied with a knot at the back.








As I mentioned before, they hang from our bedroom lamps, just tied it up with some pretty shimmery green ribbon and I was done!





What do you think? Would you have left them with just the jute, or wrapped it with yarn like me, or done something different? I'm up to other suggestions! For my hearts, I'm really indecisive as to how to add some color to them. I don't have red yarn yet, but do have embroidery floss (from my bracelet making days as a kid!). I've tried a few different ways, but nothing seems...right, you know?

As always, thanks for stopping by!!






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