Graduation Champagne

It's that time of year and it seems like everyone we know has someone graduating. We have a party to go to for my nephew this Sunday and I wanted to bring something fun and specific to the occasion. So I bought a bottle of champagne to toast his success, and decided to dress it up a bit. Literally!

So with a little felt and some craft foam, I made this unique bottle wrap. Of course, I had to share the instructions with you! And like some of my previous posts, I documented the design process, too.

I started with a piece of scrap paper and cut the rim of the hat. I left a circle of fabric on one end so I had something to glue the rim to.

I twisted the paper into a loop and glue it, folded the circle over the end, then added a square of paper to the top.

Overall it was pretty close. I decided to make the square top a little bigger. And the rim wasn't shaped quite right so I needed to adjust it a bit for my final version. Also, the circle wasn't going to work to hold the rim to the top, so that would have to be adjusted too.

Then I took a piece of cardstock to make the robe. I folded the piece of cardstock in half and cut a diamond out of the middle.

I trimmed out some of the sides and cut slits to allow for the sleeves.

I glued the sides seams together, rolled and folded down the sleeves.

I thought it was pretty well proportioned. But it was very stiff -- sort of resembled a football player/jersey. (Perhaps that will be another tutorial.) The sleeves were also a little short and the neck hole too big.

I tried it again with a piece of felt, made a few adjustment, and added a rolled diploma to add to the effect. Felt seemed to work better and I could position the sleeves easier.

So this was my prototype template. Not pretty but functional.

I cut a couple of pieces of felt. The larger piece was 12" x 6 1/2", and the two smaller pieces were 5" x 6 1/2".

I began assembling by running a line of glue along the wider edge of one of the smaller pieces. I positioned the smaller piece onto the center of the wide edge of the large piece.

I repeated the process with the other small piece of felt. I ended up with a piece that resembled a chubby cross. I used clips to hold it in place. This part could have been done with one large piece of felt, but I wanted the look of a seam. I thought the prototype I made from paper seemed a little plain.

I decided to stitch the edges that I had just glued. It didn't "need" to be stitched, but I liked the look.


The seams run across the chest and back, and the long, non-seamed piece forms the shoulders and sleeves.

I decided I needed an opening in the front of the robe. So I folded the piece longways (bringing the ends of the sleeves together) and cut a slit up the middle to the center where the neck would be.

I cut a teardrop shape to form a neck hole. It's important that the hole not be cut too large. It can easily be made larger later if necessary, but if it's too big, it won't sit right on the bottle.

This is what I ended up with so far.

Since I would need to turn the side of the robe and the sleeve two different directions, I cut a slit from the "armpit" at a 45-degree angle toward the neck hole, about an inch long.

Next, I ran a line of glue along the outer edge of the sides ...

... and turned them to connect the side seams.

I did the same thing with the sleeves.

And this is what I had at this point. Definitely starting to look like a robe!

I positioned the robe on the bottle, and lightly glued the top of the front opening of the robe together. I folded the sleeves to the front and glued them in place. Then I rolled a slip of paper and tied it with a piece of floss, then glued it at the end of the sleeves.

Now for the hat. I made my adjustments to the rim and cut the arc out of black craft foam. I made it a little thicker to adjust for the problem with attaching it to the top. Point-to-point on the arc is 5 1/4" long.

Then I cut a bunch of slits into the inside edge of the arc.

Next, I rolled the arc and glued the ends together. I trimmed out a few of the tabs since they were crowded and I didn't need that many for my purpose.

For the top of the hat, I cut another piece of craft foam 3 1/4" square. I folded over the tabs on the rim from the previous step and glued the tabs of the rim to the top.

Then I made a tassel from some more embroidery floss and attached it to the top of the hat using a tiny brad.

The hat sits right on top of the bottle, but I decided to put a little two-sided tape inside to keep it in place.

And it's done! This is the front....

... and this is the back.

Cheers!


And congratulations to all those hard-working graduates!


And be sure to check out the endless list of inspirational ideas at my home page childmade.com.




I'm linking to the following parties

Thursday
Transformation Thursday
Show Off Your Stuff Party
Strut Your Stuff Thursday
Thrifty Thursday
Get Your Craft on at Life as Lori


Friday
Show and Tell Friday
Frugalicious Friday