Napkin rings can make such a beautiful impact on your table setting. They dress up any table and provide visual interest. I have a handful of silver napkin rings that we purchased when we were first married, but I wanted something with a warmer, crafted feel. These autumn acorn napkin rings are the perfect accent for the custom cloth napkins  I made for my Thanksgiving table.

The supplies needed for this project are basic and inexpensive. I found everything except for the acorn caps at my local Jo-Ann Fabric and Craft Store. I collected my acorn caps from my mom’s yard – and by “I collected” I mean I called my mom to ask if the kids could gather some acorns while they were over there playing one day and when I came to pick up the kids, my sweet mom had collected, washed in Clorox, and laid the caps out on a paper towel to dry. If your mom doesn’t live nearby and supply you with all your random crafting supplies like mine, you can probably collect acorns from a park or purchase them from a number of sources on etsy.

DIY Napkin Rings Tutorial

Supplies:

Acorn caps
wool roving in desired colors (yarn section)
green and brown craft felt (use higher quality felt from the fabric section, the higher quality felt has at least partial wool content)
mustard-colored thread
brown ribbon
Wire floral stems (found in the floral section)
hot glue gun and glue sticks

 

Instructions:

Step 1:  Create small felted wool balls from the wool roving (wool roving in a variety of colors can be found in the yarn section at Jo-Ann). If you have never made these before, it is really easy. Detailed instructions can be found in this felted wool ball tutorial. You will need three balls for each napkin ring you wish to make.

Step 2: Hot glue felted balls into clean acorn caps.

Step 3:  Cut three green leaves and two brown oak-leaf shapes from the felt for each napkin ring. Add decorative stitching with embroidery thread or your sewing machine. I played around with several machine-stitch styles on my leaves; I also think embroidery thread would be lovely and add some chunky texture, but I avoid hand-sewing as much as possible, so…. There’s no right or wrong shape for the leaves or stitching pattern. You don’t even have to add the stitching, but I think it makes the oak leaves really go from “crafty” to polished.

Step 4:  Wrap a floral wire stem around and around three or four fingers to form a ring. Turn and wrap the two ends of the wire to secure the ring in shape.

Step 5:  Cut two small brown circles from the felt. These should be 1-2″ in diameter.

Step 6:  Gather all of the pieces in one place. Preheat your hot glue gun. Glue one felt circle on each side of the “top” of the napkin ring – this will form the foundation of the decorations. Also, tie your ribbon into a bow or a few loops. Add a drop of hot glue to the top side of one end of the green leaves and pinch together to give the leaf some dimension.

Step 7:  Arrange the three green leaves around the brown felt circle and glue in place. Next, glue one brown oak leaf between two of the green leaves. Layer the ribbon then the acorns, arranging and gluing in a visually pleasing arrangement. Add the final brown oak leaf last, positioning it to give the napkin ring balance and dimension. That’s it! Repeat for as many napkin rings as you like!

If you missed the easy dinner napkin tutorial, you can find it by clicking on the picture below.