Voila! My Thanksgiving Mantel

I have finally finished all the little projects I was working on that, all together, comprise the Thanksgiving mantel vignette at MMM's.  You recall that enormous fireplace from the PB Knockoff Halloween mantel.  That one was a lot of work.  This one was, too, but I think I enjoyed it more because it was my own creativity, rather than my attempt to copy someone else.  (Not that I wouldn't do a knockoff again.  In fact, I have one in process.)

I was determined to do this on a real budget.  I don't think I spent over twenty dollars.  We'll figure it out as I go along, OK?  I went to one of  my favorite local thrift stores, Good Samaritan.  I like Good Sam the best for furniture and home decor items.  Goodwill is my go-to for clothing.  I spent quite a while among the fabric remnants, picking through and finding little bits that would work for my plan.  I intended to slipcover the entire mantel, and then work from there to prettify it.  

I was very fortunate to find a really pretty plaid fabric with sufficient yardage to do the job.  Of course, at that time, I had no idea just how big the mantel is (eighty-eight inches), but I got lucky.  I sewed an open-ended envelope that I could just slip right on the mantel.  The rock can be very crumbly, but I was careful, and worked it on gently.  I did have to do a bit of tailoring to make it really snug, but it all worked out in the end.  

I also bought a length of moss green acetate (the kind of fabric that is frequently used for lining).  I knew it was 100% synthetic and would respond well to heat.  In addition, a length of black wool.  As it turned out, the fabric leftovers from my grandson's Halloween costume were also a perfect coordinate. I had a bit of burlap, leftover from a wreath I'll show you later, so that cost me nothing. I threw in a small skein of soft green chenille yarn.   My last purchase was a pair of beautiful moss green stretch velvet jeans.  All in all, I think I spent $8.

In addition to the burlap, I also already had a couple of metal zippers on black webbing, some gold felt, a bit of ribbon, and some pretty buttons.  I had made more flowers than I needed for my Punkin Stack, so I had a couple of rolled T-shirt roses on hand, as well.

First, I cut up  those velvet jeans, then cut a bunch of leaves from the resulting fabric scraps, sewed them, turned them right-side out, and embroidered a vein up the center.  I made more than I actually needed, so don't be surprised to read about velvet leaves in some future post!  Then I cut both small and  large -  3" and 5"- circles out of that green acetate.  I held the edges over a candle to make them curl. If you haven't seen this before, you can go here to see the how-to.  I assembled these as a stack with two small and two or three large circles, so they made a kind of cabbage rose.  Then me and my hot glue gun went to work.  I made five ornate flowers, using buttons, ribbons, bits of burlap, etc.:

Two more flowers were made from scrap fabric and leftover felt:

I judiciously cut out banners from the burlap and black wool, layering them and pinning a flower to each.  I left the edges of the banners raw.  I had made crocheted lengths of the chenille yarn to make imitation soutache stems for the flowers.  I wanted them to wind down, in a tendril-ly fashion, from the mantelpiece.  I just hot-glued these to the black wool pennants.  

You've already seen my squishy squashes (MMM calls them that - and I love it!!) and my Scrabble-tile Thanksgiving blocks.  I decided that I had worked plenty of time on that dumb branch from the Halloween mantel and I wasn't about to just put it away.  It can do double time for Thanksgiving, as well.  

I needed some balance for the opposite end.  I am not necessarily a stickler for traditional balance, per se, but I must have balance.  I was fortunate to find this wonderful, rich brown beanpot for my flower arrangement. $2 at Goodwill.  Now I have read any number of times about various folks being too good for silk flowers, unless they cost an arm and a leg.  That's just not me.  You will not find me apologizing for silk flowers.  (And I know they're not actually silk, just so you know!)  I love them.  They add such a nice touch.  I had two bunches of flowers from Michael's ($4 apiece) that I snipped apart and arranged.  They're perfect for the opposite end, and I accented it with a small pottery bird I made earlier this year:

MMM has a Silhouette.  I know - how lucky for me, huh?  He uses it for stencils for his pottery.  I ran across this really big platter, with a wheat-like pattern on the perimeter.  Good Sam, again.  I believe it was $1.  I screwed up cut out some vinyl on the Silhouette.  (Man, was that an adventure!)  This lovely platter will remind us to give God all the glory in this special season:

I did a little house-shopping to come up with the last item.  MMM's mom had a beautiful little copper lantern.  I used one of MMM's pottery bowls to give it some height and importance. It was the perfect finishing touch:

Then, the real ta-da moment, with the branch all lit up:

I still have some Thanksgiving decor items in mind.  But this frees me to do menu planning for the big meal.  I am cooking this year, expecting around 8-10 guests.  And the wheels are turning for Christmas!

And by the way, I added up the costs as I went.  It came to $23.69 - more than $20, but still, not bad!

Have you decorated your mantel for Turkey Day?  Do you love it!  I do!

Love,

Sass