Home Grown Wreath Pattern by Sarah-Jane Hickstitle: A Complete Guide to Making Your Own Beautiful Wreath
There is something deeply satisfying about making a wreath with your own hands. Whether you hang it on your front door to welcome guests, prop it above a fireplace mantel, or give it as a heartfelt gift, a handmade wreath carries a warmth that no store-bought decoration can replicate. The Home Grown Wreath pattern by Sarah-Jane Hickstitle captures that spirit beautifully — it is a design that feels rooted in tradition while remaining entirely approachable for crafters of every skill level.
In this guide, we are going to walk through everything you need to know about this pattern: what makes it special, the materials you will need, tips for getting the best results, and how to adapt it for different seasons and styles. Whether you are a seasoned crafter or picking up a wreath-making project for the very first time, you will find plenty here to inspire and guide you.
What Is the Home Grown Wreath Pattern?
The Home Grown Wreath pattern by Sarah-Jane Hickstitle is a foliage-forward, naturalistic wreath design that draws its inspiration from cottage gardens, farmhouse aesthetics, and the kind of abundant, slightly wild greenery that spills over garden fences on warm summer afternoons. The pattern is built around the idea of layering — combining different textures, leaf shapes, and botanical elements to create a wreath that looks lush and intentional without ever appearing stiff or over-engineered.
What sets this pattern apart from many other wreath designs is its emphasis on using what you actually have. Sarah-Jane Hickstitle developed the pattern with a home-grower’s mindset, which means the design is flexible enough to incorporate whatever foliage, florals, or dried botanicals you can source from your own garden, a local farmers’ market, or a craft supply store. You are not locked into a rigid list of materials that requires an expensive shopping trip. Instead, the pattern gives you a framework — a set of principles for building shape, depth, and balance — and then invites you to fill that framework with whatever grows around you.
This makes the Home Grown Wreath pattern exceptionally versatile. It works beautifully as a spring wreath bursting with fresh greenery and pale florals, as a summer design loaded with dried lavender and sunflower heads, as an autumn wreath rich with copper-toned leaves and seed pods, or as a winter piece built from evergreen sprigs, pine cones, and silvery eucalyptus. The underlying construction method stays the same; only the materials change.
Why Make a Home Grown Wreath?
Before we get into the materials and method, it is worth taking a moment to consider why this particular project is worth your time and energy — because there are very real reasons why wreath-making has experienced such a strong resurgence in the crafting community.
First, making your own wreath is far more affordable than buying a high-quality one. A beautifully made wreath from a boutique or garden center can cost anywhere from forty to well over one hundred dollars, depending on size and complexity. When you make your own, especially if you are sourcing some materials from your garden or local greenery, you can achieve the same quality for a fraction of the price.
Second, the process itself is genuinely meditative. Wreath-making does not demand the precision of sewing or the technical knowledge of woodworking. It is tactile, sensory, and forgiving. You can work at a gentle pace, make adjustments as you go, and the whole thing comes together in a single afternoon. Many people who have picked up the Home Grown Wreath pattern describe the experience as surprisingly calming — a chance to work with natural materials and create something beautiful without stress.
Third, and perhaps most importantly, a home-grown wreath reflects something personal. When you wind sprigs of rosemary from your herb garden into the design, or tuck in dried flowers that you grew and preserved yourself, the finished wreath is not just decoration — it is a small story about where you live, what you grow, and what you love.
Materials You Will Need
One of the great joys of this pattern is its flexibility, but there is a core set of materials that will give you the best foundation.
For the base, you will need a wire wreath frame or a grapevine wreath base. Sarah-Jane Hickstitle recommends a 12-inch or 14-inch frame for a standard door wreath, though you can go larger for a statement piece. Wire frames are lighter and give you more control over the final shape; grapevine bases add beautiful rustic texture and work especially well for autumn and winter versions.
Floral wire is essential. You will use it to bind bundles of foliage to the frame, so pick up a reel of 22-gauge or 24-gauge floral wire. This gauge is fine enough to be unobtrusive but strong enough to hold everything securely.
Foliage is the heart of the pattern. For a classic, full look, plan to gather or purchase a generous selection of greenery in at least three different textures. Good options include eucalyptus in any of its many varieties, olive branch sprigs, ferns, ivy, boxwood, rosemary, bay leaf branches, and any broad-leafed greenery that appeals to you. The contrast between fine-textured foliage like eucalyptus and broader leaves like bay or magnolia is what gives the wreath its visual depth.
Accent flowers or botanicals are what give your wreath its seasonal personality. Dried lavender bundles, preserved roses, dried hydrangea heads, seed pods, pine cones, berries, dried orange slices, and small dried fruit are all excellent choices. If you are working fresh, garden roses, peonies, dahlias, wildflowers, and herbs in bloom all work beautifully, though keep in mind that fresh flowers will dry in place over time and the wreath will evolve as it ages — which many people find even more charming.
Ribbon or twine for hanging is the final element. A length of natural jute twine keeps things earthy and simple; a wide velvet or linen ribbon adds elegance. The choice depends entirely on the aesthetic you are after.
You will also need a pair of sharp floral scissors or garden snips, wire cutters for trimming the floral wire, and a flat surface to work on — a large table covered with an old cloth is perfect.
Step-by-Step Instructions
Step One: Prepare Your Foliage
Before you touch the frame, spend time preparing your materials. Trim all your foliage into workable stems roughly four to six inches long. Remove any leaves from the bottom two inches of each stem, as this is the section that will be bound to the frame and you want clean wire contact. If you are working with woody stems like eucalyptus or rosemary, lightly crush the base of each stem to help it absorb water if you plan to keep it fresh.
Sort your foliage into piles by type. This is not strictly necessary, but having your materials organized makes the building process much smoother and helps you distribute textures evenly around the wreath.
Step Two: Build Your Bundles
The Home Grown Wreath pattern works on a bundle method, which is one of the reasons it produces such a consistently lush result. Rather than attaching stems to the frame one at a time, you will create small mixed bundles of three to five stems, combining different foliage textures within each bundle. A bundle might consist of two stems of eucalyptus, one sprig of rosemary, and one olive branch sprig, for example. Fan the stems slightly so they create a small, layered spray.
Hold the bundle together where the stems converge and wrap a short length of floral wire tightly around that point two or three times. Twist the ends together to secure. You are essentially creating a small, self-contained spray that can be wired onto the frame as a single unit.
Make enough bundles to go all the way around your frame. For a 12-inch frame, you will typically need between 25 and 35 bundles, though this varies depending on how full you want the wreath to be.
Step Three: Attach the Bundles to the Frame
Starting at any point on the frame, hold your first bundle against the wire with the stems pointing in one direction — conventionally, crafters work clockwise, but the direction is less important than consistency. Place the bundle so the foliage fans outward and slightly upward from the frame. Wrap floral wire tightly around both the stems and the frame several times, then twist to secure.
Place your second bundle overlapping the stems of the first, so that its foliage covers the wired section of the previous bundle. This is how the wreath builds — each bundle hides the mechanics of the one before it, creating a seamlessly layered surface. Continue around the frame, adding bundles one by one.
Keep an eye on the overall shape as you work. You want coverage on both the outer edge and the face of the frame, not just across the top. Occasionally hold the wreath up and look at it straight-on to check that it is filling out evenly.
When you reach the starting point, carefully tuck the stems of your final bundle under the foliage of the first bundle. This is the moment that often trips up beginners, but it is simply a matter of gently lifting the foliage of the first bundle, sliding the final stems underneath, and wiring them down securely. The overlap will hide the join.
Step Four: Add Accent Pieces
Once your foliage base is complete and you are happy with the shape and fullness, it is time to add your accent flowers and botanicals. This is where your wreath takes on its individual character.
Step back and look at the wreath as a whole before you start placing accents. Think about balance — not necessarily perfect symmetry, which can look stiff, but a sense of visual weight that feels settled and considered. You might cluster a few dried roses at the lower third of the wreath, tuck sprigs of dried lavender throughout for softness, and add a few pine cones or seed pods near the top for contrast.
Attach botanicals using floral wire pushed through their bases and twisted tightly around the foliage base. For heavier elements like pine cones, wrap wire around the lower scales of the cone, twist tightly, and push both wire ends through the wreath and twist together on the back. For ribbon loops, fold the ribbon into a small bow or loop and wire the center tightly before attaching to the wreath.
Step Five: Hang and Adjust
Attach a loop of jute twine or a length of ribbon to the top of the wreath for hanging. Hang it in its intended location and then step back and look again. This final assessment almost always reveals small gaps or areas you want to fill, and it is easy at this stage to wire in a few extra foliage sprigs or accent pieces. Do not rush this step — small adjustments here make a significant difference to the finished look.
Tips for the Best Results
Working with fresh foliage gives you the most flexibility in shaping your bundles, but if you are making the wreath more than a day before it needs to look its best, keep it in a cool, shaded spot or mist it lightly with water to keep the greenery looking fresh. The wreath will dry in place over time and shift from a fresh, bright look to a more muted, dried aesthetic — both are beautiful.
If you want the wreath to last as long as possible, opt for foliage that dries well. Eucalyptus, rosemary, bay, olive, and dried lavender all hold their shape and colour beautifully for months. Eucalyptus in particular releases a gentle fragrance as it dries that makes it a pleasure to have near a front door.
Vary your bundle angles slightly as you go around the frame. If every bundle is attached at exactly the same angle, the wreath can look mechanical. A few degrees of variation in placement creates the organic, slightly wild feeling that makes the Home Grown Wreath pattern so appealing.
Do not be afraid of fullness. A common beginner mistake is to make bundles too sparse or to leave too much space between them. Wreaths look dramatically more impressive when they are dense and full, so err on the side of generosity with your materials.
Seasonal Variations
The true beauty of the Home Grown Wreath pattern is how naturally it adapts to the seasons, which means one core set of skills can serve you all year long.
For spring, lean into pale, fresh colours — creamy white ranunculus, soft pink peonies, baby’s breath, pale green eucalyptus, and delicate fern fronds. The wreath should feel light and airy, as though it has just emerged from a garden in April.
For summer, think abundance. Deeply coloured dahlias, bold sunflowers, dried lavender, fresh herbs in bloom, and lush, dark green foliage. A summer version of this wreath can be genuinely spectacular.
For autumn, work with dried and preserved materials in warm, earthy tones. Copper and rust-coloured leaves, dried orange slices, cinnamon sticks, seed pods, small gourds, and textured grasses all contribute to a rich, layered look that feels perfectly seasonal.
For winter and the holiday season, combine evergreen sprigs — pine, cedar, juniper, and fir — with pine cones, dried berries, silver or gold accents, and a generous velvet ribbon. This version of the wreath tends to last exceptionally well in cold weather and fills the air near the door with a beautiful, resinous fragrance.
Sharing Your Home Grown Wreath
Once your wreath is complete, it is well worth photographing and sharing it. The crafting community around designs like the Home Grown Wreath pattern is warm and generous, and sharing your own take on the design — the materials you chose, the adaptations you made, the garden foliage you incorporated — inspires others and contributes to a larger conversation about handmade home décor.
Tag your posts with the pattern name and, if the designer is on social media, tag Sarah-Jane Hickstitle directly. Makers genuinely love seeing their patterns brought to life in different homes, seasons, and styles, and the connection between designer and maker is one of the things that makes the crafting community such a welcoming place.
If you give a Home Grown Wreath as a gift, consider attaching a small card that explains what went into making it — which plants came from your garden, which flowers were dried from your own growing season. That additional layer of story transforms a beautiful object into something genuinely meaningful.
Final Thoughts
The Home Grown Wreath pattern by Sarah-Jane Hickstitle is more than just a crafting project. It is an invitation to slow down, engage with natural materials, and create something that reflects the seasons, your garden, and your own aesthetic sensibility. It requires no specialist skills, no expensive equipment, and no perfectly sourced materials — only a willingness to work with what you have and a little patience with the process.
If you have been looking for a wreath project that feels both achievable and genuinely beautiful, this is the one to try. Gather your foliage, clear a space on your kitchen table, and spend an afternoon building something you will be proud to hang on your door. The result, as anyone who has followed this pattern will tell you, is worth every moment.
