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Editor: Alicia Thommas
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Thursday, 14 January 2010 03:00 |
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Upscale a plain cylinder vase into a sweet Valentine gift by using a few squares from a charm pack. These vase wraps are easy and quick to make. Mix and match charm squares to see the many different patterns you can create.
We used several 5-inch squares from two charm packs provided to us by Fat Quarter Shop: L'Amour by Sandy Gervais and Sent with Love by Deb Strain. Each charm pack contains 42 squares. We've been making all sorts of cute things from just two $8.50 charm packs. Such affordable fun!
Sewing Tools You Need
Fabric and Other Supplies
While using a charm pack makes this project easy, you can use scraps of any fabric and cut to size.
- Charm pack(s)
- One or more cylinder vases. Note: if you save vases from the florist, you may find several in your stash, or you can buy these very inexpensively at thrift shops and craft stores.
- Scraps of white or off-white fabric for backing
- All purpose thread
- Hand sewing needle
- Buttons
- Various ribbon and/or bakery twine
- See-through ruler
- Flexible measuring tape
- Fabric pencil
- Mini glue dots (available at most craft stores)
- Iron and ironing board
- Scissors or rotary cutter and mat
- Pinking shears
- Straight pins
Vertical Patchwork Vase Wraps
Getting Started
Cylinder vases come in many sizes. You'll need to adapt these instructions to fit the size of your vase(s).
- Measure the height of your vase, then wrap your vase with a flexible tape measure to get the circumference.
- Choose a combination of fabrics you like.
- The vases we're using are 11" in circumference. The smaller vase is 6" tall and the larger vase is 7¾" tall. We will use ours as an example, but you can adapt for smaller or larger vases.
- Using your rotary cutter and cutting mat (or scissors) cut your 5-inch charm squares in half to yield six 5" x 2½" pieces (fit to your vase).
- Arrange the pieces in a row to achieve a look you like.
- Cut ribbon. The 5/8" Happy Valentine's Day ribbon is wrapped once: cut one piece at 9" and one piece at 20" (you wrap the long ribbon all the way around the vase and tie it with the short ribbon to make a bow at the front seam where both ribbons were inserted as explained below). The ¼" sheer ribbon is wrapped twice: cut four 18" pieces. That said, it's always better to add a few extra inches to insure you have enough ribbon to tie a satisfying bow.
At Your Sewing Machine
- Right sides together, stitch two of your cut charm squares together along the long side using a ¼" seam.
- Add a third piece in the same manner to form a three-panel patchworked piece. Set aside.
- Sew the remaining three pieces together to form a second three-panel patchworked piece.
- Now, right sides together, you're going to stitch the two patchworked sections together to form a 6-panel patchwork with your ribbon inserted into the center seam. You can center a single ribbon, or have two ties about an inch from either edge. See photo below.
- Press seams open.
NOTE: Be careful using your iron on the ribbon since it may be more sensitive to heat.
- Lay your finished patchworked piece onto a slightly larger scrap of backing fabric.
- Pin WRONG sides together and top stitch on the patchworked side ½" from the edge around all four sides.
- Trim all around with pinking shears.
- Place a glue dot on the center top edge of the wrap, position the wrap on the vase (without touching the glue dot to the glass). Remember, your center seam where the ribbons are stitched is the 'front' of the wrap. When it's in place, stick the dot to the vase and wrap. We allowed for a small overlap at the back of the vase wrap.
- The ribbon wraps around the vase to the back, comes back around to the front, and ties in front at the seam where it's sewn in.
Diamond Patchwork Vase Wrap
Getting Started
Cylinder vases come in many sizes, so you'll need to adapt these instructions to fit the size of your vase(s).
- Measure the height of your vase and then wrap your vase with your flexible tape measure to get the circumference.
- Choose a combination of fabrics you like.
- The vase we used is 11" in circumference and 7¾" tall. You can adapt this for a taller or broader vase.
- Three charm squares arranged as shown below is the perfect length to wrap and nicely overlap our vase. Laying your charm squares on a ruler or gridded cutting mat as shown helps you align the pieces properly.
- Pin the pieces together as shown below.
- Gently lift and lay your pinned piece on to a larger scrap of backing fabric as shown below, WRONG sides together:
- Pin to backing.
At Your Sewing Machine
- With the charm side up, top stitch all the way around each square, ¼" from the edge.
- Trim your backing fabric leaving a quarter inch white border all the way around. You can use a fabric pencil to mark a line ¼" from the edge of your charm squares, or eyeball it as I did. Straight cut or pink the edges with pinking shears as I did.
- Sew buttons on as shown or using your own pattern.
- Place a glue dot on the center top edge of the wrap, position the wrap on the vase (without touching the glue dot to the glass) and when it's in place, stick the dot to the vase and wrap. Again, we've allowed for a small overlap at the back.
- Wrap baker's twine around the center button, and then around the vase twice and tie under the button as shown.
Other machines suitable for this project include the Pfaff expression 2038 and the Bernina aurora 430.
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