I love a glass of warm mulled wine at Christmas and this quick project makes use of last year's unwanted Christmas jumper; Turning it into unusual gift wrapping that doubles up as a second present - a bottle warmer to keep that mulled wine hotter for longer. Why not make your bottle warmer more personal and embroider a message or festive images.
Turn the jumper inside out. Place the wine bottle into the sleeve of the jumper so that the bottle opening is past the cuff edge by about 6 to 8 cm 9 (this is to give you enough fabric to create a casing for your ribbon later). The size you allow will depend on your ribbon size and will need to be roughly twice the width of your ribbon.
At the base of the bottle, pin the two sides of the sleeve in place, creating a bag-like shape and making sure that the bottle fits inside and that you have still have the 6 to 8 cm for the casing.
Remove the bottle from the sleeve and cut the remaining sleeve off, about 1 cm away from your pins to give you a seam allowance.
Using a zig zag stitch, sew along where you placed the pins, removing the pins as you go.
To give the bottle warmer a better and more shaped base, we are going to sew in two darts. To do this, squash the bottom seam you have just sewn to the side of your fabric creating a triangle shape. Make sure there are no folds and it is lying flat. Pin in place then using the zig zag stitch, sew horizontally across the triangle shape about 3 cm from the tip. Repeat this step on the other side.
Turn the bottle warmer the right way out and place the bottle back into the warmer. Create a casing for the ribbon - turn the cuff over to create a single hem or casing big enough to insert your ribbon through. Take a needle and matching thread and hand stitch in place using a slip stitch. Make sure you leave a gap about 2cm wide to thread the ribbon through.
Attach a safety pin to the end of the ribbon and thread the ribbon through the casing.
Pull the ribbon to enclose the bottle and secure with a bow. Clip the edges of the ribbon by folding it in half length ways and cutting it at a 45 degree angle from the fold to give you a nice V shape.
To give a little shape to the ribbon ends, run the ribbon between your thumb and the scissor edge so that it creates a gentle curl.
© MyTime Media Ltd -Tom Sochacki
This article was originally featured in Sewing World magazine (December 2016)
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