The last two weeks of January are almost always the coldest of winter and this year is no different. One of the moments I take delight in is when I spot the abundance of citrus produce at the grocery store.

The Cuties happen to be one of my favorites. They’re pint-sized, easy to open, sweet, and seedless. Yum.

But I think it’s really the bright blue and orange packaging that gives me a boost of happy.

Doesn’t this bag of fruit just make you want to smile?

How to make a coffee sack bow

Anyway, in my quest to keep cozy and DIY during the winter blast, I pulled together a winter citrus wreath using my grapevine shelf wreath. I also found a blue-inked coffee sack and made an easy bow.

There are many ways to make a burlap bow, but since coffee, grain and potato sacks are usually short in yardage, here is the way I made mine.

I cut out one side of a coffee sack and then cut 4″ pieces lengthwise.

I could have chosen to wash the coffee sack, first, but I did not do that, although I think it would have made the material a little softer to work with.

I pulled off all the strings on the sides that would come off and put aside about 8 of the longest pieces of string.

I looped over the end part of two pieces and tied a piece around each to secure the bow loop.

I tied each string off to the backside. I’m sorry this picture doesn’t show that, but you’ll see in the next shot.

After I wrapped a piece of string around each bow loop individually, I crisscrossed the two pieces and wrapped more string around both to make it one unit.

I wrapped the string kind of like one would wrap a cross. Top over the bottom, over left, over top, over right, over the bottom, and so on. I tied the string off in the back and trimmed the string down.

Using a scrap piece of the coffee sack I cut a 1-1/2″ x 18″ piece and wrapped it around the center from top to bottom. I wrapped it twice and tied it off twice on the backside.

Then it was time to trim down all the extra strings, fringe, etc…

I took a third piece of the coffee sack to wrap around the wreath for hanging. I attached it to the wall with a fancy upholstery tack, then I hot-glued the bow to the front.

Another way I could have attached it would be to stitch it to the hanging strip from the backside.

Of course, this is the first one I made, and it’s a bit uneven, but I’m sure with practice they would get better.

What I really like best and was trying to capture was the accents of the bean sack wording within the bow.

I particularly liked the blue and orange color combo.

I used real fruit, which can be plucked right off the wreath and eaten. The fruit is sitting on a hidden shelf, so it doesn’t need to be glued or held down by anything.

Go to this post, to learn how to make a hidden shelf wreath.

Otherwise, faux oranges or fruit would look cute, too, and can easily be glued on to any wreath.

This has replaced the snowman wreath, shown here, in the makeshift mudroom area in my kitchen.

It adds a little color to these dreary days and what can I say, it gives me a boost of happy;)

Hope you’re staying warm and cozy or out enjoying the sunshine ~ Amy

More coffee bean sack and Cuties ideas:

• Decoupaged coffee sack furniture cabinet
• Easy no-sew coffee sack pillows
• DIY Framed coffee sack art
• Cuties Pop-Art Wreath 

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Funky Junk/ Party Junk

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