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Sunday, March 6, 2011

Wine Snuggies!?!

Originally posted 11/3/10

Good morning all!  We have now entered the season….the season of hostess gifts!  Yes, you are supposed to bring the host/hostess something when they invite you over;)  With Thanksgiving and the other winter holidays approaching, I thought we could work on a cool way to present a hostess gift.  Yes?  Sound good?  Great. 
By far, the most popular hostess gift (yes, I am using the female version to make it easier…I am sure there are many “hosts” too), is a bottle of wine.  But why present it either naked, in a cheesy gift bag, or with a plain bow, when you can hand make something so much fancier, with stuff you might have laying around??  Besides the “wine snuggie” that I will showing you, I will also teach you how to make a coffee cup holder that is also super cute and very gift worthy.  And it goes a little something like this…..
How cute are those?  They are made from old sweaters, felt and ribbon.  I used sweaters that had stains on the front.  Ok, ok….they didn’t fit me anymore.  Jeesh!  You forced it out of me!
I will start with what I affectionately call the “wine snuggie”…..
You will need the arm of a sweater, felt circles in whatever color you want, green felt, ribbon, little jewels (totally optional) and a hot glue gun.
Start by trimming the sweater to fit the wine bottle.  I also fold down a cuff on the top of mine, so I took that into account when measuring. 
Turn the sweater arm inside out and glue the ends together.  When you flip the arm right-side out, it will be glued together like a little bag.
I chose very fall-ish colors as you can see, but you can totally do this with cheesy Christmas sweaters or whatever you want to fit your situation.  I cut little slits in the sweater cuff and wove my ribbon through.  I tied a simple knot.
Now it is time to make the pretty felt rosettes.  It is so much easier then it looks.  You take circles of felt, any size you want.  I doubled some of mine up to make a layered looking rosette.  Cut the felt circles in a spiral.  The great thing about these is that you don’t even have to be too careful.  They will still look great!!
Once you have your spiral, you will roll the rosette up, as tight or as loose as you like.  I prefer a tight spiral.  Coincidentally, that is also how I throw a football;)
Hot glue your ends, and ta-da….you have a pretty flower!  I used four on my wine snuggie, but you can do as many or as few as you want.  But don’t go crazy up in here….
Hot glue the rosettes on to the sweater.  Doesn’t mine look like an owl right now?  Maybe I should have gone with that…..
I cut a couple of “leaves” out of green felt and hot glues those on as well.  Oh well, there goes my owl idea.
Is that not the cutest thing you’ve ever seen?  Wouldn’t you love to get that as a gift?  I think it is so much better and more thoughtful then a simple gift bag.  And cheaper too!  I used an old sweater, so that was free….and felt is always cheap.  You could even go the Goodwill to get sweaters for a couple bucks….still cheaper then a gift bag.

Now onto the coffee “snuggie”…..I have seen versions of this in many places.  I figured why spend $15 for one, when I can make it for virtually nothing? 
I kept this one pretty simple.  I figured that rosettes and other embellishments could get in the way of coffee drinkin’.  But if you want to embellish, go on with your bad self!  I used the arm of a sweater, ribbon and hot glue.
First, I measured the sweater to my coffee cup.  I do this differently then I do the wine version, as I put the cuff on the bottom of the coffee cup.  It stays on better this way.
I turn the sleeve inside out and turn the non-cuff end down.  I glue it down in every inch or so.  Do not glue all the way around!  Your fingers will need a little room to get in there to pull the ribbon through.
I tied a knot at one end of the ribbon to make it easier to pull through.  You will have trouble with this project if you have big Andre the Giant hands like my husband…..
Pull the ribbon through the space you left when you glued the non-cuff end down.  Turn the sleeve right-side out and cut a slit where you want the ribbon to come out.  This way, you can tighten, or loosen the sleeve as you see fit.
Finished product!  So super cute and actually really useful!  And the best thing….these are super easy to make.  Anybody can do this.  All you need is a hot glue gun, which everyone should have anyway.  They are so versatile.  They can fix anything!!  EXCEPT CURLING IRONS!  Yes, I am talking to you, mom;)  Anyhoo, this would be such a cute gift on a brand new coffee cup.  Maybe in a gift basket with some fancy coffee too??

I will be giving away both of the “snuggies” that I made.  The coffee “snuggie” will come with the brand new cup; the “wine snuggie” will not include a bottle of wine…..sorry;)  Get your own…Courtney doesn’t share booze!!;)  Enter the most interesting hostess gift you have ever gotten, or given, in the comments section, and I will randomly pick 2 winners.  Good luck!

I hope this post gets you excited for the holiday season!  I will be featuring a hand-made gift idea every Wednesday until Christmas.  I promise all the ideas will be easy, affordable and super adorable.  See you all Friday!!

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