Decorating your canning jars

Besides using my jars for canning, I also like the way they look around the house.  They serve many uses in my house, candle holder, button container, candy corner corraler, etc.  I decided to  put together a little photo tutorial to share over at A latte with Ott, A  she is having a canning party this week.  Stop by her blog and check out all her fun recipes and ideas and visit the linky party.

I am all for deocrations that are reusable and easy to move from one jar to the next in the event I actually decide to use a precious jar of home canned goodness. 

I made two versions and here are the final products.

FYI Just imagine that jar filled with little pumpkins. 

(Many were sacrificed during the making of this tutorial)

This projects requires the following

sewing machine or needle and thread

scissors

elastic in your choice of size, I used 1/4 inch width

fabric or ribbon in several sizes and colors

I started with fabric for one jar and ribbon for the other.  I measured my jar and doubled that to get the length of my fabric and ribbon.  I also took away an inch and that was my measurement for the elastic.

Here is the ribbon and ric rac I used for my Halloween jar along with the elastic cording

Here are my strips of fabric.  I cut them with a pinked edge so they would have a more primitive rustic frayed effect.

next you are going to go to your sewing machine or grab your needle and thread.  we are going to sew two lines of stitching and create a tunnel for our elastic to go through.  Make sure you make it wide enough fo ryour elastic and to allow for whatever you will use to thread your elastic through.  I like to use a large safety  pin.  You can see it in the pictures below.

When you have your little tunnel made start threading your elastic thru until the end is even with the edge of your fabric or ribbon.  STOP at this point we are going to make a few stitches so the elastic stays put and we can keep threading our elastic thru so our material will gather up.

Once we secure the first end, continue threading the elastic thru and secure on the other end with a few stitches, either by hand or using your sewing machine.

Once your elastic is secured at each end, put right sides of fabric or ribbon together and sew the edges together.  Seam allowance is what ever you think works for your fabric.  You may also heat seal your ribbon ends at this point to keep from fraying.

And here is the finished product.  I trimmed my fabric down on the first one I made.  I think it looks better this way on my jar.

Enjoy. 

 Tomorrow I will be canning meat sauce.  Stop back in and see what I come up with.