At a Glance: Hocus Pocus Wreath
- The hair hangs from inside the bead, not off the outside. Tie the bundle at its middle and feed that tie down the bead hole. That’s the step nobody explains.
- Witch one takes 35 minutes. Witch three takes 10. Which is why half the internet calls this easy and the other half doesn’t.
- About $25 for all three. A hoop, three beads, and yarn you’ve already got in a basket somewhere.
To make a Hocus Pocus wreath, you build three yarn witches and hang them from a dowel across a metal hoop. Each one is a wooden bead for a head, with a folded bundle of yarn tied underneath for the dress. The hair is its own bundle, tied at the center, and that tie goes down into the hole in the bead so it anchors from the inside. Then you glue florals in a crescent down one side. Jump to the supplies, or skip to the hair step.
Here’s the thing about this project. It photographs like a five-minute craft. Then you sit down with a bead in one hand and a pile of yarn in the other and you realize nobody told you how the hair actually stays on.
So that’s where this starts.
What do you need to make a Hocus Pocus wreath?
Makes one wreath with three witches
- 1 metal hoop, 10 to 14 inches. Gold or black. A macrame hoop works, and so does an embroidery hoop with the inner ring popped out.
- 1 wooden dowel. An inch longer than the hoop is wide, so you’ve got something to lash at both ends.
- 3 wooden beads, 25mm or bigger. Check the hole goes all the way through and that yarn fits. This matters more than the size does.
- Yarn, 6 colors. Orange, green, and purple for the dresses. Black, copper, and cream for the hair.
- Faux florals, greenery, mini pumpkins. One bush of each. You’ll use less than you expect.
- Hot glue gun, full size. Mini guns run cooler and let go of smooth wood.
- Scissors you don’t care about. Yarn dulls them fast.
- Fabric scraps. Optional, but a torn strip at the waist is what gives each witch her own look.
- A crochet hook or a bent paperclip. Sounds fussy. Turns the hair step from five minutes into five seconds.
Quick tip: Buy the beads before the yarn. Hole sizes are all over the place between brands, and chunky yarn that won’t feed through turns the best part of this build into a fight. Take a strand with you and test it.
How do you make a Hocus Pocus wreath?
Build one witch start to finish before you cut yarn for the other two. The first one teaches you where your tie wants to sit, and that changes every length after it.
1. Make the hair first
Wrap your hair yarn around four fingers about 15 times. Slide the loop off, lay it flat, and cut through one end. You’ve got a bundle roughly twice as long as you want the hair to end up.
Now take a separate 10 inch piece of the same yarn. Lay the bundle across it and tie it tight around the exact middle. Pull harder than feels polite.
What you want is a bundle that falls in two halves, with a knot in the center and two tails coming off that knot.
2. Anchor it in the bead
Feed those two tails down through the bead hole from the top. The crochet hook earns its spot on the supply list right about here.
Pull until the knot seats down against the bead and the hair drapes over both sides like a center part. Then add a dot of glue at the crown, and not one second before.
The tie holds the weight. The glue just stops the knot creeping back up.
That’s the whole thing people get stuck on. Style it however you want once it’s anchored. Bun, two buns, long and loose, braids down the sides.
3. Build the dress
Cut about 30 strands of dress yarn, 12 to 16 inches each, and fold the whole bundle in half. Sit the fold up against the underside of the bead.
Tie a short length of yarn tight around the bundle right below the bead. That’s your neck, and it’s the second joint doing real work. Snug it until the head can’t spin freely, then trim the tie ends and tuck them into the dress.
4. Add the sash
Tear a strip of fabric about an inch wide and tie it at the waist, a couple inches under the neck. Tear it, don’t cut it. A frayed edge reads like old cloth and a clean edge reads like a craft store.
Give each witch a different fabric. It’s the cheapest way to stop three identical builds from looking like three copies.
5. Trim them to three different lengths
Hang each witch before you trim her. Yarn settles, and a hem that looked level on the table won’t be once she’s hanging.
Make the three heights obviously different. Not a little different. Three matching figures look like a kit. Three that clearly aren’t matching look like sisters, and that’s the whole charm.
6. Lash the dowel across the hoop
Set the dowel across the hoop about a third of the way down. Wrap yarn around each joint in a figure eight, 6 or 8 passes, knot it, then glue over the knot.
One blob of glue at each end will not hold a dowel carrying three witches. The wrap does that job.
Tie each witch on by her hair tie, spaced so they don’t touch. Let them hang loose instead of gluing them down. Half the appeal is the way they move when the door shuts.
7. Glue the florals in a crescent
Cut the florals into sprigs with 3 or 4 inches of stem. Start at the top of one side and work down in a crescent. Greenery first, then the big blooms, then tuck the pumpkins into whatever gaps are left.
Stop when you’ve covered about a third of the hoop.
You’ll want to keep going. Don’t. Ringing the whole hoop with flowers is the fastest way to make a handmade wreath look like something off a shelf, and the bare side is what keeps your eye on the witches.
Is a Hocus Pocus wreath actually a beginner project?
Our comments split right down the middle on this one, and both camps are telling the truth.
One reader: “Idk how ‘simple’ these are, but I don’t think that will deter me!” Another, with a photo of hers to back it up: “I made one similar last year super easy to do.”
They’re describing different witches.
- Witch one, about 35 minutes. You’re working out where the tie sits, how much yarn makes a dress look full, how the hair seats in the bead. It feels fussy because it is.
- Witch two, about 15. Your hands already know it.
- Witch three, about 10. This is the one people remember, which is exactly why anyone who’s done it before says it’s easy.
So don’t judge this on witch one. Give yourself a little over an hour for all three and know the hard part is front-loaded and never comes back.
How much does a Hocus Pocus wreath cost to make?
Stash build, under $15
Yarn from the basket, a dowel from the hardware aisle, beads from a craft store multipack. Skip the metal hoop and use an embroidery hoop you already own. Dollar store florals. This is the version most people actually end up making, and it looks fine.
Front door build, $25 to $40
A real gold macrame hoop, chunky yarn in all 6 colors, a decent floral bush, velvet mini pumpkins. Put your money in the hoop. A thin wobbly ring undercuts everything hanging off it.
Keeps for years, $50 and up
Wool blend yarn instead of acrylic, because it holds its shape instead of going fuzzy. Plus a flat box sized to the hoop, with the witches wrapped in tissue so the hair doesn’t crush.
These store better than almost any wreath you’ll make. Nothing rigid to snap.
Can you hang this wreath outside?
Covered porch, yes. Open weather, no.
Acrylic yarn keeps its color pretty well, but it drinks up rain and stays damp for days. Wet yarn hanging on a wooden dowel gets you a mildew smell and a dress that sags out of shape. A storm door or a covered entry is the sweet spot.
One more thing, and it’s the kind people skip. A full size glue gun gets hot enough to blister, and yarn work puts your fingers right where the glue lands. Keep a bowl of cool water on the table. It turns a burn into a nothing, and if kids are helping, that bowl belongs on the supply list.
How do you know you got it right?
- You can pick each witch up by her hair and nothing moves.
- The three heights are obviously different, not almost the same.
- Flowers cover about a third of the hoop and the rest is bare.
- The hems look level while it hangs, not while it lies flat.
- They swing a little when the door closes.
What’s the one thing to get right?
Tie the hair bundle at its middle and pull that knot into the bead hole. Let the glue be backup, never structure.
Get that and the rest is yarn, scissors, and twenty minutes of fiddling with flowers.
Doing the rest of the porch? The floating witch hat lights hang above a door wreath, and the pool noodle candles sit on the step below it. If you want something bigger for the yard, the glowing tomato cage witch uses the same three colors.
Show us your sisters
Post yours on our Facebook page when they’re done. The reader versions last time were better than ours. And pin this to your Halloween board on Pinterest so the hair step is waiting for you next September.
A few helpful answers
Hocus Pocus wreath FAQs
Yarn, beads, and making it hold together.
It drapes over the bead, but it hangs from inside it. Wrap yarn around four fingers about 15 times, slide it off, cut one end open. Tie a separate length tight around the middle of that bundle, then feed the tie’s tails down through the bead hole from the top until the knot seats. That knot is what holds the hair on, not the glue.
25mm or bigger, and check the hole first. The head has to read as a head against a long yarn dress, so small beads look off. The hole matters more than the diameter does, because a narrow one won’t take the hair tie and chunky yarn at the same time.
Worsted or chunky, and matte over shiny. Thin yarn needs twice the strands for the same fullness. Matte acrylic photographs like fabric while shiny yarn catches light and looks plastic. Wool blends hold their shape longer if you plan on reusing it.
It’s glued on instead of tied through. Glue holds yarn to a smooth wooden bead for about a week. If yours is shedding or sliding, more glue won’t save it. Start that head over with a center tie pulled down into the bead hole.
Almost, which makes it a good one to do with kids. Every joint on the witches is a knot, so they need no glue at all. Only the florals really want it, and craft tacky glue handles those if you give it overnight.
Does a movie tie-in make a craft better or lazier?
Three yarn witches in orange, green, and purple. Nobody needs the reference explained.
One camp says that’s the whole point, because a craft people recognize instantly is a craft people actually sit down and make. The other says leaning on a film does your creative work for you, and the same wreath in colors you picked yourself would be more yours. Where do you land?
Vote, then make your case below. Team tie-in, tell us the next one you’d make. Team original, tell us your colors.
