I will start off by confessing that this project was definitely not my brainchild.  In fact, it is a lovely idea given to me by one of our customers.  Instead of using the wine wrap in the traditional manner (wrapped around a bottle of wine!), she is using them as wraps around flower vases on centerpieces at a bridal shower.  I thought it was a fabulous idea---another great re-purpose of our pretty cotton wine wraps!  So I warned her that I was going to "steal" her idea, and now I'm sharing it with all of you!  BTW--my "vase" in my photo is a glass I bought at the dollar store!  If you're needing a lot of vases for centerpieces, don't spend a ton of money---head to your local dollar store and shop in the housewares aisle.

I can think of many instances where these can be used.  Weddings, anniversary parties, baby showers.  We've embellished ours with a pretty Jacobean floral design (found by clicking here).  I thought by keeping it "generic" and not using a monogram, it might have more function for more people.  But there may be an instance where you want to monogram them and use as centerpieces.  Here's a great example of a monogrammed wine wrap:

There is no big secret to stitching on the wine wraps.  I like to hoop a medium weight tearaway stabilizer.  You can choose the sticky kind, but I still go "old school" and use the 505 Spray.  Either works well.  I also LOVE my paper templates of the designs.  When I printed this one out, I realized that the design looked better if stitched on the wrap at an angle, so I could rotate my paper template until everything "looked" right on the wine wrap.  You can then see from the photo that I hooped the wine wrap at the same angle (using the cross hairs on my paper template) so it would stitch where I wanted it to stitch.  (I hope this makes sense - this is one of those things that's hard to describe, and easier to show you!!)

I pop the wine wrap onto the stablizer and start stitching!  Within a few minutes I have a finished project---and I LOVE finishing projects!  On a side note, I realized as I sat down to work on this blog, that I hadn't used my embroidery machine since the LAST time I wrote a blog article.  I've been spending my coveted sewing time catching up on quilt blocks of the month---I'm hopelessly addicted to them!  And I do try to stay up to date with them, but maybe signing up for FIVE of them was a little bit like stacking the deck against myself.  LOL  At any rate, once I heard that embroidery machine humming, I realized that I've missed it!  I've got a small (medium) sized stack of goodies that family members would like personalized---maybe I'll get busy and finish that stack up.  In other words, we're all so busy during this time of the year with graduation, gardens, and vacations---don't forget about your good friend, your embroidery machine!

Hope you find a use for these wine wraps - email me and let me know what YOU do!

Susan