Same old story…this pin has haunted me for months on Pinterest. It was adorable, but looked so complicated. Maybe it was the actual process of drilling through a baseball that intimidated me. However, once my little guy made his Little League’s All-Star baseball team (Go Nico!), I decided to bite the bullet and give it a try. I had to have something to decorate the house for game day celebrations!

Since Nico’s baseballs are sentimental to him, I went to Thrift Town and purchased some used ones for around $2 per bag of 4-5 balls each. I love the look of how the older, used balls look vs. new shiny ones for this project. I also ran to my local craft store and found a wooden N, some maroon spray paint (Nico’s team color), and some burlap ribbon.

Supplies needed: 11 baseballs, drill w/bit long enough to go through a baseball, wire coat hanger, needle nosed pliers, vise grip devise. Optional, burlap ribbon and wooden letter.

My first order of business was to drill the holes in the baseballs. Very important that they do not move when attempting to drill the hole! To combat this, I used a vise grip.

Second important thing when drilling a hole is to ensure you have a drill bit long enough to penetrate through the entire ball. Once you get your supplies in order, it’s actually very simple and only takes seconds to accomplish! Once you drill through, reverse your drill direction and drill out of the baseball. PS: the stuff that comes out of the ball is kinda gross!

Once all the baseballs have been drilled, start stringing them onto your everyday wire coat hanger. Simply deconstruct your coat hanger into a straight line, and start threading the baseballs through. Though the balls can be butted up against each other, be sure to leave about an inch of exposed wire at both open ends of the wire so you can twist it together at the end. Some were easier to string through than others. The harder ones, I recruited my hubby for. NOTE: I found that only 11 balls work well for this project. Any less and you don’t get a good circle, any more and the wreath gets an egg type shape vs. a circle shape. I even tried to do an extension piece since I originally wanted this to be larger, but the shape simply didn’t hold.

Once all the baseballs have been strung onto the coat hanger, use needle nosed pliers to twist the two open ended sections of the coat hanger together so the wreath doesn’t fall apart. This takes some hand strength, but overall is not difficult to do.

Here’s the finished product! I embellished it with a wooden W I painted maroon, which is my son’s team color, in addition to using puff stickers to spell out his name and number on the letter. I stapled the back of the letter onto some burlap, which I tied around the top of the wreath. I also added a small burlap bow. Total time about an hour, including painting and drying of the letter. Total cost about $15 with all the supplies. Instead of thrifted balls, you could use game balls your child has received, or use softballs, etc. This would make a fabulous end of year coaches gift as well.

Here’s the live segment on Good Day Sacramento’s Thrifty Thursday:

http://gooddaysacramento.cbslocal.com/video/10283829-thrifty-thursday-baseball-wreaths/

Happy thrifting!

Gina Doglione-Nielsen is featured every week on Good Day Sacramento’s Thrifty Thursdays, and owns GNJ Consulting which handles Public, Social, and Media Relations for Thrift Town Stores. Gina lives in Northern California with her amazing husband Josh, and is constantly on the go with three “very active” and “strong personality” bambinos; aka Team Nielsen, and loves every minute of it.