It’s time for another tutorial! This time, we’ll be making wine glass charms! These are really easy to make, and they are great gifts for the holiday season.

So, what you are going to need are jewelry tools (specifically wire wrapping tools, a crimper and a wire cutter), gold colored posts with the flat head ends, gold colored hoop findings, and beads. For this project, I picked a little snow globe, some good sized glass beads (four different colors) and faux pearls.

First, take your main bead, and string it on the post, then add the accent bead. Repeat for all 4 centerpieces.

Next, you’ll need to snip the wire to the appropriate size. I like to leave a half inch between the top of the colored bead to where I snip. Then, use your wire wrapping tool to create a loop.

Pinch it completely shut with the crimper. You now have the charm’s centerpiece.

From there, string your beads. Add a pearl, a colored bead, another pearl, the centerpiece, another pearl, the final colored bead and then the final pearl.

Then slide the hoop closed and use your wire wrapping tool to create a hook. Don’t loop the end closed. You want to be able to open and close the wine charm to put it on the base of glasses.

Repeat until you have all 4 wine charms done and – voila! Simple Christmas present.

When I was younger, I remember my Grandmother making these and giving them to the neighbors as Christmas gifts. While it seems kind of hokey, they actually come in very handy – and are super simple to make.

What you need:
1 dish cloth
1 hot pad
1 button

The nice thing is, around the holidays, there are always stores that have some sort of matching hot pad/dish cloth combo going on. (And, heck, if you want one for everyday use, you can make one for yourself in your kitchen’s colors.) You can pick them up pretty cheap from just about anywhere.

First thing you do is throw them in the wash. Read the washing instructions, and make sure they are nice and clean before you proceed.

The next step is to mark where you need to sew. Just fold the hot pad in half, making sure the hanging loop on the hot pad is on either the left or right side and not in the center. Draw a line on the fold. (I like to use chalk because it washes out very easily.) Then fold the towel in half width-wise and do the same. (If there is a pattern, draw on the back side of the towel.)

Then – pinning! You can pin it however you want, but here’s what I find easiest to do: find the exact center of both the hot pad and the dish cloth and pin it down. Make sure that if you have a pattern, that both pictures are facing one another when you pin so that when you sew it down, your pattern is on the outside when you are done!

Then take the ends of the dish cloth and pin it to the outside of the oven mit. Then pleat inwards. I use roughly two 1/4 inch pleates on each side. Pin them in place, and you are ready to sew!

You don’t have to use a sewing machine, but it will go a lot faster if you do. Regardless, sew down the line you made, making sure not to break your needle on the pins. (I remove them as I sew, because I hate sewing over pins…)

Once that’s done, it’s time to add your button.

It goes on the outside of the hot pad, opposite of where the hanging loop is. Once it is sewn on, you can slip the loop over the button – and voila!

You now have a hanging dish cloth. Congrats!