Festive Napkin Ring Tutorial

I had so many plans for the last week of term, I was going to be super organised and make some last minute Christmas presents as well as work on my C&G and update the blog with that tutorial I promised. Unfortunately my youngest was ill all week so I am far from organised. In desperation I had to drag the poor fella around town on Friday, although I did keep him happy by popping into a cafe for a giant chocolate muffin and hot chocolate.

The tutorial was for some festive napkin rings I made last year, I haven't had time to take step by step photos but it's a fairly easy project so I'll just explain how they are made.

1. Make some flat felt in green (or use commercial felt if like me you find yourself short of time).
2. Using a bright red wool make a some little felt beads. For those of you who haven't made felt beads before Liz from Mill Girl has a great tutorial here.
3. Take a small length of brown roving (I'm using natural merino), and wrap it around your fingers.
4. Dip it in warm soapy water (make sure you're not too heavy handed on the soap as too many suds is a disaster with this technique), and start to roll the felt on some bubble warp. (There is no soap in the picture below because this is a fake step by step photo).
   
5. Keep moving the roving around your fingers and rubbing it on the bubble wrap.
6. Once it has started to felt you can take it off your 4 fingers and just use 2, either continuing to rub it on the bubble wrap or rubbing it on the palm of your hand.
7. When felted rinse in cold water and leave to dry.
8. Cut out your holly shaped leaves and when everything is dry sew the leaves and berries onto the ring and hey presto, you have a festive napkin ring!

So, a rather brief version of the tutorial has been delivered and I can cross it off my list, now to spend the afternoon sewing some last minute gifts and a couple of cushion covers. Then maybe tonight I'll find the energy to start the mammoth wrapping that lies ahead.