Lately I have once again faced how much I have yet to learn. So far I’ve made jewelry and other decoration pieces of beads but it struck me that anything can be made prettier if you add some beads or bling to it. Inspiration can come from anywhere. Often I get the idea somewhere around me and turn it to my kind of version. Imagination is a powerful thing! This idea came to me when I saw a collar of a wine bottle. What does it do? The collar is to prevent drops from sliding down the bottle side and tarnishing your table cloth. The one I saw wasn’t very good-looking. I thought immediately that those collars are something I could make myself, only I would make a finer one!
What you need:
– piece of felt, about 5 x 12 cm (2 x 5 inch) that is 2-3 mm thick
– 5 pieces of decoration
– needle and thread
– 1-2 pins
You need 11 cm of felt (4,3 inch) to wrap the collar around ordinary bottle plus 1 cm (0,4 inch) extra to seam spot. I have used bead caps here but you may you use beads or buttons as well. I call them just “pieces” from now on so that I won’t confuse you.
Pieces are sown into the fabric with tiny stitches. A good start is to make one “anchor stitch”, it will fasten your thread to felt. I use ruler so that I can place the pieces equally far from each other and from sides. I mark the length of 11 cm (4,3 inch) with a pin. I place and sow first four pieces each 2 cm (0,8 inch) from each other and the first one is 2 cm (0,8 inch) from the pin.
So you make a straight row of four pieces. On the backside you can see that they are not connected. Every time it starts with an anchor stitch and ends with binding loose threads into a knot. Then you can cut the extra thread away.
Then you roll the felt, one end meets the pin. If you have another pin, you can use it to lock the right size before removing the first pin.
The roll is sown together with nice little stitches.
Finally, it’s time to sow in the last piece. It is sown at the very end, because if it’s attached to roll too early, it may end up under your seam or at least make it harder to do a good seam.
Now we’re ready. Next time you are invited to girls’ night, you can bring a stylish wine bottle with a practical DIY collar on it.
