DIY Felt and Jute Napkin Rings for Your Fall Table
A beautiful fall table doesn’t need a big budget or hours to create. I love to include a handmade detail, such as napkin rings or place cards, in all my tablescapes. For my most recent fall tablescape, I made these easy DIY fall napkin rings with just felt and jute twine. They come together in minutes and add a warm, cozy texture to your Thanksgiving or autumn tablescape.
I love a project that uses inexpensive craft supplies you can find at any craft store (or may already have in your stash). These felt napkin rings are simple enough for a beginner, and you don’t need a sewing machine or any special tools or skills. If you’re setting a table for a crowd, you can make a whole set in one afternoon without spending much at all.
The best part? Once you know how to make them, you can adapt them for any season or holiday. Switch the felt color and swap the jute twine for ribbon, and you’ll have napkin rings ready for Christmas, Valentine’s Day, Easter, or a summer dinner party.
Let me show you how I made mine for my fall table.
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Napkin rings always add an element of “specialness” to any table setting. Guests know that you have taken a little extra care to set a lovely table. These simple napkin rings are perfect when you want to emphasize color and texture on your place settings. Since fall decor relies on warm, natural textures, felt and jute twine are perfect for October and November entertaining.
For this fall tablescape that features texture and soft neutral colors, anything too fancy would have seemed out of place. I also wanted guests to feel the warmth and softness of the felt when they pick up their napkin and slip it from the napkin ring.
Table of contents
Supplies You Need for These Easy DIY Fall Napkin Rings
These supplies are so inexpensive, and you may already have them in your supply stash. I did.
- felt in fall colors. I bought two sets of felt last year; one set in shades from white to cream, oatmeal, wheat, brown, and gold. The other set featured darker colors in tan, brown, rust, burgundy, and dark green. For these napkin rings, I went with the set of darker colors. These felt pieces are 8 inches by 35 inches, so you have a lot of felt to work with. You can also order 8 x 10-inch pieces of felt, if you prefer.
Since I was using chargers that I decoupaged last year with a leaf motif, I chose three colors that pulled from the color palette: a tan, a medium brown, and a rust.
- jute twine. Jute is natural, rustic, inexpensive, and easy to work with. I always have several rolls in different thicknesses on hand. For this project, I used a thin jute, about 3mm or 1/8 inch thick, but thinner twine works too.
- darning needle. Or any sharp needle with a large eye. I used a plastic needle from a package I have had fo ra few years.
- any sharp scissors. For small projects like this, I love my Fiskars craft scissors.
- rotary cutter. I tried to use my exacto knife, but that didn’t work, so I turned to my tried-and-true rotary cutter. It cut the felt like butter.
- cutting mat. One of the most useful tools. I’ve used mine hundreds of times for all types of fabric and paper
- plastic quilting ruler
How to Make DIY Felt Napkin Rings
Preparing Your Felt Pieces
Step 1 – Determine how many napkin rings you need. I planned on six place settings, so I needed six napkin rings.
Step 2 – Determine the size of the felt. I rolled up one napkin, wrapped the jute around it, and measured the length of the jute. Each napkin ring would be six inches long. I eye-balled the width needed as 2 1/2 inches.
Step 3 – Cut out your felt. Use the rotary cutter and the plastic quilting ruler to cut two 6 x 2 1/2-inch pieces in each of three colors.
There are six pieces in three colors.
Attaching Your Jute Twine to the Felt Pieces
My idea was to punch two holes in both of the short sides of the felt with a hole punch. That did not work at all. Fortunately, the needle worked like a charm.
Step 1 – Thread your jute twine through the large eye of your needle.
Step 2 – Use your needle to punch through the felt to make a hole about 3/8 inch from the sides of the felt (hole 1). Do not cut the twine until you are through with each napkin ring. It doesn’t matter which side of the felt because there is not a top and bottom. Pull a few inches of the twine through the hole. Leave several inches of twine as a “tail”.
Step 3 – From the same side of the felt, push the needle through the twine to the other side (hole 2), where you started.
Step 4 – Bring the twine across the length of the felt and push the needle through to make a third hole (hole 3). Come back up to make a fourth hole (hole 4)
Step 5 – Once you have the twine pulled through all four holes on both short sides of the felt, turn the felt over, like the picture below.
Step 6 – Flip the long piece of twine from the back of the felt to the front. Lay your rolled napkin across the center of the felt before you wrap the twine over it.
Step 7 – Uses the twine to pull the two sides of the felt together. Still don’t cut off the twine. If the two ends of the twine are at the bottom of the napkin, turn the napkin around so the ends are on top. (NOTE: This napkin was the last one I made, so I’m near the end of the twine.)
This is how you want your napkin, felt and twine to look, with the ends on top.
Step 8 – Make sure that the felt comes together or slightly overlaps. Then make a bow with the ends of the twine. You can now cut off the ends of the twine.
You now have finished your fall felt and twine napkin ring.
Repeat until you have as many napkin rings as you need.
Here is how they look on my fall tablescape.
Each napkin ring took less than 5 minutes to make. I got faster with each one. It took about 25 minutes to make all six napkin rings.
Why This Is a Great Napkin Ring to Make Through the Year
The first thing I’m excited about with this felt and twine napkin ring is its customization for holidays or other events.
- Christmas – change the felt to red or green. Instead of twine use 1/8-inch satin ribbon.
- New Year’s Eve – change to black, silver, or gold
- Valentine’s Day – red, pink, or white
- Mardi Gras – green, purple, black, gold
- St. Patrick’s Day – green, black, white, gold
- Easter – pastels, such as green, pink, yellow, blue
- Patriotic Holidays (Memorial Day, 4th of July, Veterans Day) – red, white, blue
- Halloween – orange and black
- Falll – creams, browns, rusts, orange, greens
The second thing is how budget-friendly and easy this DIY napkin ring is to make. Felt pieces and a roll of jute will make napkin rings for every holiday this year.
I hope you enjoy making these napkin rings! Check out these other napkin ring projects:
Save this DIY napkin ring project to your Pinterest Boards. Then check out two of mine: Fall Tablescapes and Thanksgiving Tablescapes.
