How to Make a Fall Leaf out of Burlap

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Recently, I was inspired by a fellow creative, Brooke from Re-Fabbed. She shared her >>fall mantel<< and I just loved her big metal leaves she had hanging from it! I set out to try to recreate that somewhat with this DIY! Keep reading and I’ll show you How to Make a Fall Leaf out of Burlap! PLUS, bonus tips for how to decorate with your burlap leaves is below! Make sure to check out our other Fall Diys while you’re here!

Supplies Needed for this Project:

Paper and Printer
Tape
Burlap
Paper stem wire
Twine
Ribbon
Greenery and a Berry pick
Hot glue
Scissors and Wire cutters

1. Draw and increase the size of your leaf

This oak leaf isn’t perfect, because it’s hand drawn. I drew it onto a regular 8.5×11 sheet of paper. Afterwards, I enlarged it with my printer using two sheets of paper and piecing them together. Then I used tape to connect them.

2. Cut out your enlarged leaf print

I cut the leaf out as my template so I could use it multiple times and make several leaves. You can laminate it to prolong it’s use, also.

paper leaf cutout being used to cut a leaf out of burlap

3.Trace the leaf onto the burlap

Using the template, I traced the leaf onto my burlap. You could pin the template in place and cut around it so you won’t have the trace marks. I thought this was easier though because of all the curves.

4. Cut out your leaf from the burlap

Then just use heavy duty scissors to cut out your leaf from the burlap. Burlap is very dusty, so you might consider wearing a mask when working with it. You could also use drop cloth as an alternative.

5. Add ribs to your burlap leaf

I found these paper stem wires in the floral section of Walmart recently, but they also have them on Amazon, and they are perfect to use for the ribs of the leaf. Because they are wired, they make the leaf nice and sturdy.

paper stem wire used to create the lines on a burlap oak leaf

I used hot glue to attach the paper stem wire to the burlap leaf. You will need wire cutters to cut the wired paper. .

adding paper stem wire to a burlap leaf to make the ribs of the leaf

I just kind of eyeballed where the ribs needed to go and cut and glued! Very simple!

6. Outline your leaf with twine

After attaching the paper stem wire, I outlined the entire leaf with regular twine to finish it off.

using twine around the edge of a burlap oak leaf

7. Clean up your burlap leaf edges

It was a bit messy around the edges, so I cut around the outside of the twine border to clean it up a bit. Now onto that bow!

8. Add your embellishments

I like the leaf by itself, but I wanted to add a little something to the stem and let the leaf hang down. The bow I made was basically a Re-Fabbed bow, but I used a single larger ribbon strip along the back to anchor the criss cross pieces.

criss cross bow used for a burlap leaf swag

I added raffia, greenery, wooden swirls, and a berry pick to my bow, also. What do you think?