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Making Napkin Rings

 

The Napkin Ring - 1.5 inch PVC pipe

Like I said...I used leftover garage stuff. I had some scrap PVC pipe, 1.5" diameter laying around, so I used a sawzall to cut it into 8 equal lengths of about 3/4 inch. These will serve as the structural "ring" portion of the napkin rings.

 

The Color - Cheap Ribbon

Bought a roll of ribbon from Wal-mart for under two bucks...two inches wide by about 9 yards. Because we're cooking Easter Dinner, we went with this green ribbon with pink dots...My better half said the colors were very "Spring".

Other ribbon colors / styles could easily be used for Christmas or other holidays, or for general non holiday use!

 

Fold the ribbon tip

After some experimentation to find the best method, I landed here...Take the tip of the ribbon (uncut..you don't know how much you'll need) and fold it down at a 90 degree angle.

 

Start Inside

Align the ribbon inside a pvc ringlet so that the newly folded side is flush with the inside top edge of the pvc.

 

Keep wrapping the ribbon

Wrap the ribbon around the outside of the pvc ringlet and back down through the top...keep going around the ring until the entire thing is covered with the ribbon, and NO pvc is visible. (I found that if you get the angle just right..this takes about 2 feet of ribbon.)

 

Cut off the Ribbon

Leave yourself about 3/4 inches of ribbon, and cut off the excess. Make sure you leave enough that you can wrap it one last time to the inside of the ring, without it coming out of the top again.

 

Glue the remaining flap

Glue the leftover "flap"to the inside of the ring. Make sure you pull it tight before the glue sets. I used a hot glue gun for this, but I'm sure there are other alternatives as well. If you use a hot glue gun..keep in mind that the glue stays hot for awhile after you set it. I learned this the hard way...OUCH!

 

Make as many as you need

That's pretty much it. Make as many as you need. We were expecting a total of 8 for dinner, so that's how many I made, plus one extra in case one fell apart. (None of them did!).

This shot shows a napkin in one of them, plus a few in progress.

 

Finished Table

Here's the table, all set. We were really pleased with how this turned out, and the dinner went over without a hitch. I think they ended up looking better than any we saw for sale, while saving us almost the entire cost of the family dinner!

I have to admit, it was nice to do a project in the air conditioning for once :) May seem silly, but you'd be suprised how happy you can make your wife by making a few of these...she might even forgive a few extra days in the garage :)