Mesh Tube Halloween Wreath From Dollar Tree Supplies
Starting around the fall holidays is my very favorite time to visit Dollar Tree. You never know what you’ll find. They always have some truly adorable things for both decorating and crafting, and I love to see what’s new. (I should also note that their craft section gets more impressive all the time.) This year I discovered their bags of mesh tube, and I am HOOKED. When I was a kid, I had a few hair bows made of this stuff, and I loved them so much. Mostly I loved playing with them. An early version of a fidget toy, perhaps? Anyway, I hadn’t really thought about those until I saw the mesh tube at Dollar Tree, and then I decided I needed to make a wreath! (Or three… but we’ll start with one.)
So here’s my first wreath, which happens to be for Halloween. I was able to get all of the supplies I used from Dollar Tree. You can get mesh tube elsewhere if you can’t find it at your local Dollar Tree, but I have yet to find a better deal than the $1 per 36 feet that Dollar Tree sells it for.
Supplies:
- Wreath form
- Mesh tube
- Pipe cleaners
- Scissors
- Yardstick/tape measure
I did eventually find wire wreath forms at Dollar Tree, but the stores around me are often sold out. You can use any size you want, but the ones sold by Dollar Tree are 14”. Craft Outlet also sells that size, FYI. Before I found them at Dollar Tree, I had some from Craft Outlet. They feel considerably more robust, so I’ll save those for a project where I’m using something a little heavier.
When I collected the mesh tube for this project, I ended up with an odd assortment. Not in color—I had all orange, green, purple, and black—but in texture. I was buying whatever I could find, so some of the bags I bought contained a fuzzier version. That wouldn’t have been an issue, except that you only get 15 feet of fuzzy tube in a bag compared to the 36 feet of the regular tube. I don’t think it matters at all in the final product, but it was something I was more aware of when I was buying colors for future products.
I worked on the floor of my bedroom this time while I watched Hallmark movies. It’s a little weird watching Christmas movies while making a Halloween wreath, but it makes me happy. 🙂
So let’s get started!
The first thing I did was cut my pipe cleaners in half.
The second thing I did was lay out my tape measure. Because I was working over carpet, it stood up and stayed flat perfectly. I opened up a bag of each color, cut the tie holding each one together, and started unwinding them.
I cut my pieces 28” in length, and something important to remember is that you can’t stretch out the tube as you’re measuring it. It’s so stretchy that this is a little tough, but it is doable.
I cut all four colors at once, so it went pretty quickly.
To make each bundle out of the tube, I held one piece of each color in my hand, lining up one end. Then I folded it back and forth until I’d made two sets of loops at each end. I did have to make sure that there was enough tubing on the last pass to pass through the middle so that it would get caught in the pipe cleaner.
Speaking of which… As I was holding the tubing together in the middle, I took a pipe cleaner piece and wrapped it around that center part. I twisted the pipe cleaner a couple of times tightly to hold everything together.
Because of my weird assortment of mesh tube, I ended up with some bundles that had a different texture of one color or didn’t have orange at all. I made different piles of bundles, so that when I assembled the wreath I would be able to keep it balanced.
To add each bundle to the wreath form, I twisted the ends of the pipe cleaner around the middle two rings of the form. The wreath form has six sections, and I ended up with six bundles in each of them. I could have squished it more and added even more, but I used what I had. I think it looks plenty full.
To finish it off, I went through and pushed the ends of the pipe cleaners back into the wreath. Then I flipped it over and trimmed any loose ends that I saw.
I love my new Halloween wreath! I think it looks pretty next to the spider wreath in my HOME sign. Coincidentally, before I even hung the spider web wreath, my husband said my mesh tube wreath could use some spiders. I don’t even know where they’d be able to go and not get lost! But anyway, something to consider.
If you make your own wreath, I’d love to see it! You can find me on Facebook and Instagram.
Happy crafting!
