DIY New Years Pillow Wreath
Create a festive wreath to welcome in the New Year! This DIY New Year’s wreath is made from fabric and ribbon. Grab the free template and follow the tutorial to create your own pillow wreath!
Create a wreath you can enjoy for the month of January – a DIY New Year’s Wreath! This pillow wreath is a great beginner sewing project that is perfect to replace your holiday wreaths and welcome in the new year.
For this wreath, I used fabrics in silver, black and gold colors. I had a some of them on hand already from a fat stack and then found two more prints with New Year’s Eve images of clocks, confetti and stars to tie the entire project together!
I first made this wreath seven years ago and have hung it up each January since then. A cute chalkboard hangs in the center of my wreath displaying the new year, 2024. It is easy to update or replace each year. You can also skip the little chalkboard all-together as the wreath is so festive on it’s own!
These pillow wreaths are one of my favorite wreaths to make. My mom taught me how when I was younger and we have continued to make new wreaths and gift them to each other for the different holidays. I’d love to eventually finish making one for each month!
> Check out my Ultimate Guide to Pillow Wreaths!
DIY New Years Wreath
Choosing the Fabric
For this wreath, I chose to use five different coordinating fabrics. I made seven of pillows from each fabric and ended up with 35 pillows. Three of the five prints came from a fat quarter bundle I purchased with my mom from our local quilt store. The other two prints we purchased separately, the star print and New Year’s Eve print. The fabrics were all black, white, gold and silver and went together beautifully.
You can make this pillow wreath many different ways using charm packs, fabric scraps or mixing and matching fabrics you find at the store. A few helpful tips!
- Choose fabrics with colors that coordinate well together. Sometimes sticking to a specific color palette or just a few colors helps!
- Mix and match different patterns like stripes, polka dots, prints or solids.
- Choose less busy prints to accompany busier fabrics. Since my New Year’s Eve fabric has a busy print it helped to keep some of the other prints simpler.
- Vary the size of your prints. Two of my prints feature polka dots but they work together because they are different sizes. One is a large polka dot print in black and gold and the other has smaller dots in silver and white.
Supplies Needed for Happy New Year Pillow Wreath
- Free Template – Grab the free file by filling out the purple form at the end of this post.
- Cotton Fabric
- 12″ wire wreath form
- Poly-fil Stuffing
- 3/8″ ribbon
- Thread
- Point turner
- Pins
- Needle
- Fabric scissors (I also find small embroidery scissors are useful too!)
- Optional: Mini chalkboard and white paint pen
Step by Step Tutorial
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Step One: Cut the fabric for your wreath.
Print the free template and use it to cut all of your rectangles for the pillows. You can transfer the pattern to cardboard to make it sturdier. The pattern is for the entire pillow (it gets folded in half) and should measure 4.5″ x 5.5″. It includes a 1/4″ seam allowance.
For the 12″ diameter wreath, you will need about 30-35 pillows, depending on how full you want your wreath to look. For this wreath I created 35 pillows, 7 of each color, but only ended up using 32 pillows. I never know exactly how many pillows I’ll end up using until I start arranging them.
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Step Two: Stitch the fabric pillows together.
For each pillow, fold the fabric in half, right sides together, 4.5″ side to 4.5″ side. Sew, with a 1/4″ seam allowance. Leave an opening to stuff the pillow. I leave the opening on the long side of the pillow.
Trim the corners, flip the pillows inside out and push out all of the corners.
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Step Three: Stuff each pillow!
Stuff each pillow with Poly-Fil and hand sew the opening closed. Don’t overstuff the pillows, making them too hard, as this will make it harder to tie them to the wire wreath form with ribbon.
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Step Four: Tie the pillows onto the wire wreath form using ribbon.
Cut your ribbon to a length of about 8″ long. You may want to cut one and test it out in case you prefer your ribbons to be longer for tieng. Once you decide on an ideal length, cut all of them!
Start on the outer ring and work your way in. For this wreath the outer ring has 14 pillows, the middle has 10 pillows, and the inner ring has 8 pillows. You can decide how full you want your wreath to look and always do more or less. This Christmas wreath was made with 35 pillows; 14 for the outer ring, 12 for the middle ring, and 9 for the inner ring. This Thanksgiving wreath was made with 30 pillows; 13 for the outer ring, 10 for the middle ring, and 7 for the inner ring.
Arranging it can take some time. It’s like a puzzle trying not to have too many pillows with the same color next to each other. You can slide them along the wreath a little bit to reposition them, but I have also cut or untied the ribbon and moved them around that way.
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Step Five: Add a small chalkboard message!
The wreath is finished but if you want to add a little extra something, add a small chalkboard, tied on with ribbon, to the center of your wreath. I wrote “Happy New Year ” along with the year on my chalkboard with a white Sharpie paint pen. You could use chalk and then change the message each year. Don’t forget to add a small ribbon loop to the back of the wreath so you can hang it.
Be sure to check out all of my Ultimate Guide to Making Pillow Wreaths! They are fun to make for every month of the year!
This finished wreath is so festive and the golds and silvers add so much glam! I love making pillow wreaths and they really are a great beginner sewing project and a lot of fun to make! :)
Happy New Year crafty friends!!! :)
Get the Free Pillow Wreath Pattern!
Fill out the purple form below with your first name and email address! The free file will be sent straight to your inbox! If you have already filled out the form below, don’t worry – you won’t be added to my list twice! This freebie is for personal use only. I hope you enjoy crafting something special. Please let me know if you have any questions :)