DIY Wine and Beer Bottle Vases

As I mentioned earlier, I decided to get a little crafty with Christmas presents this year. While browsing Pinterest, I stumbled upon this image that inspired me to try my hand at making vases out of wine and beer bottles.

Found here. Originally from here.

A little bit of googling turned up handy tutorials on how to wrap bottles with jute. Some tutorials called for using a hot glue gun, which I don't own (and quite frankly, I can't imagine that getting hot glue on your fingers is all that pleasant). Luckily, I found some tutorials, like this one, which claimed that you could achieve the same results using plain old Elmer's glue.

The first step was to obtain some empty wine and beer bottles. I asked D to help me out with this step. I literally told him, "I need you to drink beer for my project." He was happy to oblige! Once I had a few bottles collected, I needed to remove the labels. Soaking the bottles in hot water makes this step much easier than trying to scrape dry labels off the bottles.

Bottles soaking in hot water in the kitchen sink.

Some labels came off rather easily, while others required a little scrubbing. On one wine bottle, I wasn't able to get all of the glue off, but it was fine by me, since I was going to cover it with jute anyway. After all the labels were off, and the bottles no longer smelled like alcohol, I let them dry overnight.

Bottles drying overnight.

Once the bottles were prepped, I gathered my supplies. I figured I would start with a beer bottle because it was smaller, and if I screwed up, I'd still have plenty more extra beer bottles to play with. I also bought Elmer's glue and a roll of jute (which I found in the jewelry and beading aisle at an arts and crafts store). I used a paper bag to contain my mess and not ruin the dining table.

Supplies.

I started wrapping my beer bottle from the bottom just because I figured any mistakes would be less obvious there than on the top. I did not glue any jute underneath the bottle. These photos had to be taken with my phone because I don't happen to have three hands (one to hold the bottle, one to hold the SLR camera, and one to take the photo).

I started wrapping the bottle from the bottom.

The basic steps of the process involved putting a little bit of glue on the circumference of the bottle, placing jute over the glue, and holding that part down for some time to make sure that it set enough for me to move on to the next section. The beginning part was hard because the jute kept trying to slide off the bottom of the bottle, so I had to hold it in place longer than the subsequent sections. The rest of the bottle was mostly straightforward, except when the bottle started narrowing. In that section, the jute kept sliding up the bottle to the narrower part, and I had to allow for a longer setting time again.

Glue and wrap. Glue and wrap. Rinse, repeat.

To wrap one beer bottle in jute took me about an hour. Granted, I was being paranoid and made sure that every piece of jute was glued to the bottle. I probably could have gotten away with gluing every other turn around the bottle, but since this was supposed to be a gift, I didn't want to take any chances. After an hour of sniffing glue, I had gotten quite light-headed. But it was totally worth it because the beer bottle vase turned out great!

The beer bottle vase is complete!

Inspired by my initial success, I was eager to proceed with the rest of the bottles. I happened to have some yellow yarn sitting around from another project, so I figured I could try wrapping one beer bottle with that, just to mix things up a bit. For some reason, though, this particular yarn was refusing to stick to the bottle. It would just slide off, no matter how much glue I would dump on it. I suspected that the yarn may have been too narrow, and so I bought a multicolored blue/green yarn that was wider. It worked out much better.

The yarn on the left is wider and flatter than the yarn on the right.

I made a few more beer bottle vases and one wine bottle vase. The wine bottle vase took two hours to make, and of course I was trying to finish it up the day before Christmas Eve! Luckily, it all worked out.

The wine and beer bottle vases, all done!

Comments

  1. I love it! Great idea.

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    1. another suggestion - after covering it with jute - go back with a tiny beaded strand to add to the looks. I think I'll give that a try, as I have lots of different shapes and sizes to try out. Or another idea would be to place an earring in a few places. (don't glue it in place until you see how it looks )

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    2. Ooh, that's a great idea! Would definitely add some color and even more texture to the vases.

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  2. wow... thanks for the step by step. I keep seeing it on Pinterest and I didn't know if it would actually turn out. I love it!

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  3. Thanks for the tutorial! I really want to make a trio of vases, a magnum, a regular size wine botle and a beer bottle. One thing I noticed is that the bottles on the top pinterest picture almost looks like the jute was painted, either on the bottle or dipped in paint, dried, then wrapped?? Might be interesting to try, a row of vases all the same size and texture all in different colors :)

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    1. That sounds like a good idea. I've found examples where people spray painted the jute after it was already applied, but I've also seen (on amazon) that you can buy colored jute.

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  4. How do you end at the top of the bottle?

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    1. I go all the way to the top of the bottle, covering the lip of the beer bottle, and just cut off the jute, gluing and holding it in place for some time. The cut-off end at the top always ends up in about the same place as the cut-off end at the bottom of the bottle (in my experience), so I just turn that part toward the wall. :)

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  5. These pictures were taken from my etsy store and I used twine and hot glue. http://www.etsy.com/shop/EastElmDesigns

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    1. Do you mean the first image? Thank you for letting me know! I will add a link in the photo caption to credit you.

      (The other images were all taken by me.)

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  6. Such a cute idea! I love this. I want to make these for my kitchen :) www.toughenoughnutritionandfitness.com

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  7. I just did my own set of these with twine... hadn't thought of the yarn though, fun idea to add color!
    Another great option is to use glass candles! Especially the larger candles that tend to get ugly scorch marks along the inside... a great way to still use the candle to the very end without the ugly black soot!

    Thanks for sharing!
    lifeinthesetimesblog.wordpress.com

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    1. I like your glass candles idea! I think this twine-wrapping concept is so versatile that it could be used just about anywhere.

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    2. I have done this on flower pots big and small ...gorgeous!!!

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    3. I've been waiting for something cute to decoration the open space over my kitchen cabinets. I think these would be cute with mixed jute colors and letting a candle melt all down the jute. I would mix the candles in color and let some of the candles drip down on the other candles (holding a dripping candle over another candle).

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  8. I am working on this now and not liking the sloppy look of the glue. I hope it is not noticeable when it dries. And, I was just thinking that these really can't be washed, right? If they come out okay, I am going to give them to my sister-in-law as part of her Christmas gift. She bought me the yarn for Christmas last year and I have leftover from a crochet project.

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    1. Christine, don't worry about the glue. Once it dries, it becomes clear so it won't look messy at all.

      I would be careful with any washing. The way I envisioned these vases was not for use with live flowers, so I wasn't planning on washing them.

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  9. You can use spray adhesive... I will try it and let you know! :)

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    1. Oooh that sounds like a great idea! I bet the gluing process would go much faster that way. Let me know how it turns out!

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  10. Love this!! I have all of these bottles around the house because I knew I would find something to do with them. Thanks for sharing!

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    1. Thanks for stopping by! Let me know how your bottle vases turn out!

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  11. I've made a few of these with wine bottles. A hot glue gun is a MUST! It dries instantly... no holding it in place & waiting. All you need is a little dollop.

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    1. That's awesome! If I had a glue gun, I would try it...

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  12. I would like to do this for a gift any idea on how to stencil some words on them? and if I wanted to use them as vases and thoughts on spraying them with clear spray paint to seal?

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    1. For stenciling, you can try wrapping jute or yarn around only part of the bottle, like I did for our wedding centerpieces. You can try wrapping the bottles only half way up, or just around the top and the bottom, and this would leave you some room for stenciling. Or you can try etching the glass instead - Young House Love has a good tutorial on this. If you go that route, I would suggest etching first and wrapping the bottle with jute second.

      As for spray painting, I've definitely heard of jute being spray painted, but I'm not sure if that would "seal" the vase enough to protect the jute from absorbing water.

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    2. I bet a stamp would work well.

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  13. Thanks for this tutorial. You did a great job. I also pinned this to my blog as I was in need of some spring-spiration. I will be gathering some thick yarn from my moms house this week and perhaps give this a try soon. Thanks for the tips. You did a great job and I really like the mix of colours.

    Crystal

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    1. Thanks, Crystal! Good luck with your project!

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  14. I am moving this weekend and have all these on hand! Now I van decorate my kitchen by using bright colored yarn.

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    1. That's great! And good luck with the move!

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  15. Hey! It's great to see an actual tutorial on this. How much jute did you need for one wine bottle? (Approx)

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    1. I can't remember exactly, but I think it was no more than half a roll of jute (maybe less). Hope this helps!

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  16. Would the jute with Elmers glue stick to plastic bottle, or just glass bottles?

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    1. I haven't tried it with plastic bottles, but I imagine it should work.

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