January 26, 2014
I saw this advertisement in the latest Yankee Candle catalog for a summer themed candle holder and while its beautiful, it is a bit pricey. I am a bit clutzy at times ( I broke a mirror this morning) so I try not to spend too much on glass things that I want to use indoors or outdoors.
While shopping with my brother yesterday at Michaels Craft store, I wandered around looking for inspiration for how I could mimic that jute wrapped jar. I headed back to the floral department and found a package of fish net and tossed it into my cart. $4.99 - 40% off coupon. (turned out there were two pieces in the pouch)
I have a collection of old and new mason jars that make perfect luminaries for a summer time walking path and I remembered I never tossed out my gallon sized glass Pickle Jar from after we were robbed. I knew I would find some use for it. I had wrapped quarters in it previously but it turns out the burglar needed them more than me.
So today while cooking beef stew on a snowy Sunday, I tried crafting my own net wrapped jar.
I keep a spool of jute around always but you can use clear fishing line...(I may use that on the next jars) or even heavier duty thread. I have both of those other things but went with the jute.
I have that nice big plastic needle from my crocheting projects and it was flexible and worked well.
When I sat down to figure out how to do it, I thought I could put the jar in the center of the net and pull it up and around securing it at the neck. That doesn't work well and would waste a lot of netting to use a huge piece. Instead I laid the jar on its side and found the pieces in the pouch fit perfecting around the large jar. All I needed to do was to sew a hem in the two long edge sides to join them and make a net tube of sorts.
For the top edge I doubled a piece of jute and tied it around the top of the jar with a knot. I would be attaching the netting with simple stitches along the edge securing it to this piece of jute.
The bottom part was pretty simple. I cut a piece of jute and saved it to be my tie. I put the netted jar in my lap upside down (opening on the bottom) and pulled up the net as tight as I could at the bottom then tied the cut piece of jute making a gather.
A simple snip of the scissors to get rid of the extra and the flattened knot recessed into the glass recess in the bottom perfectly sitting flat on the table.
Now I know the Yankees are beautiful and have metal attached but I plan on braiding some jute to add a decorative add on to the jar....
As it turned out, the cut piece from the bottom...still in tube form, fit perfectly on another old mason jar I had so I made a smaller version to burn my Bath & Body Works mini candles in there.
The more I think about it, the more things I find I can add to or change for the next jars I do.
I can attach a few sea shells or starfish onto the braided cord....or just scatter them around the pieces. I can fill the jar with sand and set the candles inside to burn them, or just use them alone.
We are only limited by our imaginations and mine is running wild.
