Guest Post: Felt Napkin Rings

Hello, Random Thoughts of a Supermom readers.  I’m Paula from Sweet Pea and I’m delighted to be guest posting today for Kelli.

When I was a child, I remember my mom and grandmother making felt napkin rings as party favors.  I never forgot them and always wondered how they were made.  This spring in Southern Lady Magazine, there was a feature on these cute napkin rings that I so fondly remembered, but no instructions.  Following the picture in the magazine, I figured out how to make them.

I played around with felt and came up with these three samples.

Aren’t they fun?  Would you like to make some?  I thought you would! 

Supplies Needed:

Felt in colors of your choice

Scissors and/or rotary cutter

Ruler

Sewing pins

Make the Napkin Ring:

Make the napkin ring which also becomes the center of the felt flower by cutting 7” x 2” strips.  (My pictures show three strips.  Cut as many strips as you need to make your desired number of completed napkin rings.)

Fold each strip in half and secure with pins.  This will make cutting the felt much easier.

Cut a heart shape on each end of the strip, stopping a little less than half-way through the width of the strip.  Then cut from heart to heart.  This is difficult to explain, so I roughly sketched in red how you should cut but be aware that the heart on the right doesn’t look so much like a heart.

They should look like this once cut.

And should look like this when you open each strip.  (Kind of like a bone!)

Make the Flower:

Cut a 4” square for each flower.

Fold the square into fourths and pin.  (Sorry for the color switch.)

Cut a half circle starting from the halfway point of one side and ending at the halfway point next to it.  (Cut from black dot to black dot.)

Do not make a half circle on the side that contains all of the folds.

Now make a small clip across the folded end.

It should look like a flower when you open it up.

Make the Sepals:

Cut a 4 1/2” square for each sepal.  In nature these are green but feel free to choose any color you wish.

Fold the square into fourths and pin.  Cut a sailboat shape out as shown below. (Another felt color change..I made quite a few versions.)

Cut off the folded tip to make a hole in the center and it should look like this.

To assemble the flower, place a flower on top of the sepal, lining up the holes in the center.  Wrap the napkin ring part around a napkin and then bring the ends through the lined-up holes and you’re done.

Felt is inexpensive and this idea could be used to coordinate with the season.   Here I’ve used two for a fall place setting and one for a summer one.

This project makes a great table favor.  Pink or blue could work for a baby shower or all white could be used for a bridal shower.

I hope you enjoyed this project and that you might consider trying it.

Many thanks to Kelli for having me today.  I’d love it if you’d stop by Sweet Pea sometimes for a visit.