How to Make a Wine Cozy

This easy-to-make wine cozy is an elegant way to present a gift of wine, champagne or sparkling cider.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Wide Ribbons
• Cording
• Decorative Buttons
• Dressmaker Pins
• Fabrics
• Sewing Machine
• Sewing Needles
• Thimbles
• Threads
• Champagne
• Sparkling Cider
• Wine Bottles
• 16-inch Square Cloth Napkins
• Scissors
• Scissors

1. Use a purchased cloth table napkin for your wine cozy or make your own napkin from chosen fabric. Follow the directions given in "How to Make Table Napkins" (see Related eHows) to make one napkin. A 16-inch-square napkin will do for most bottles.

2. Choose fabrics for your wine cozy that reflect the occasion or time of year. Use holiday solids, prints or metallics during the holiday season and lighter pastel colors in the summer or spring.

3. Splurge on a brocade or velvet fabric for your wine cozy. You'll only need a small amount of fabric.

4. 

   Pin the finished fabric around the bottle, right-side out. Fabric should fit the bottle snugly, and one edge of the napkin should overlap another to form a tube. Pin fabric in place and remove the fabric tube from the bottle.

5. 

   Stitch the fabric into place. Start approximately 5 to 6 inches from either end of the tube and stitch along the existing hemline of the napkin's edge. Stitch until you reach the opposite end of the tube. The unstitched end of the tube is the top of the cozy.

6. Embellish the stitched tube with decorative buttons placed along the stitch line. You can also make a decorative machine stitch in a contrasting color along the stitch line.

7. 

   Turn the tube inside out and gather the bottom portion of the cozy. Make two or three pleats on each side of the tube at the bottom edges. Pin the pleats into place and stitch along the bottom edge. Use a 5/8-inch seam allowance.

8. 

   Turn the cozy right-side out and put your bottle in it. Tie a wide, decorative ribbon or a length of cording around the cozy at the neck of the bottle.

9. 

   Arrange the fabric at the top of the bottle so that it is turned down, cuff-like, at the neck of the bottle. The top of the bottle will be visible.

Tips & Warnings

• Hand-sew the fabric into place if you do not have access to a sewing machine.
• Machine-stitch the fabric layers into place with a thread color that matches exactly or is a shade darker than that used in the hem of the napkin. Use a long stitch length.
• Try not to worry if your pleats at the bottom of the cozy are not symmetrical. This pleated seam is to gather the fabric in and is not meant to be decorative.