DIY Do-over: Twine Lanterns

Well I spent one solid day removing all the lace and glue shmootz from the vases. Goo Gone is great, it smells like delicious oranges so you sort of forget it's toxic. After all that I could finally start rebuilding them with my awesome twine edging I scored at the lovely PA Fabric Warehouse for 55 cents per yard. The future hubs helped me with this step, until he got bored which happened quite quickly. Boo.


Same procedure as the lacey lanterns, except using a lot more glue. Wrap the edging evenly around top and bottom, loops facing the middle of the vase. You could use any looped ribbon or edging for this, by the way, just get coordinating weaving material. I went heavy on the glue because I will be using these pieces as support for the woven string. I also tried to keep these pieces from overlapping or gapping at the ends, this will keep the number of available loops even and make it easier to keep to my pattern.

Let these dry for 24 hours so the glue is nice and strong. Now comes the fun (tedious) part: weaving. I found knitting yarn in the exact color as the twine for $2 at Michaels. This was easier for me than trying to find skinny twine which I couldn’t find anywhere, but whatever you get the following procedure will work for it.

The best way to start the weaving process is to draw out your pattern on paper. After you glue on the trim count how many loops are available to you. Draw these out flat on a piece of paper with the bottom trim and start making up patterns. It might take a couple tries but it’s much easier than trying to figure it out on the vase itself. My pattern requires 4 separately woven strings. I’ll be going through the pattern I decided on, but there are simpler and more difficult ones that would also look great! Experiment!

Start by cutting a piece of your weaving material, here-forward to be called ‘yarn’, about 6 times the height of your vase. Take one end and knot it on the loop to the left of the one you glued together (the intersection of the cut ends of the edging).

Stand your vase up and let the yarn fall to the table, or whatever you’re using. See the loop on the bottom trim that the yarn falls in front of? Count 3 loops to the left of that loop and weave your yarn through it.

Now bring the yarn back up to the top trim and count 6 loops over from your starting knot, weave your yarn through that.

Take the yarn back down to the bottom trim and count 6 loops over from your previous bottom loop, weave through that. Continue until you meet up with your original knot, gently pull the yarn tight so everything looks straight and knot it off next to the original.

Now cut another identical length of yarn and knot it off 1 loop to the left of your original on the top trim. Wrap this piece in the exact same pattern as the first, the woven loops will always be 1 to the left of the original, so you don’t have to count anymore!

Now start your bottom trim pieces. Cut another piece of yarn and knot it off at the loop on the bottom trim that is directly below your very first knot on top. The pattern is exactly the same from here, you are just going bottom to top instead. Go up, count 3 loops to the left of the original knot, loop, continue until you reach your beginning knot for that string, knot.

Last one! Cut another piece of string, knot if off 1 loop to the left of your previous string on the bottom trim, replicate the pattern, knot off the end.

Congratulations you are done!! How long did it take you? Was it worth it? Go light a candle in it and tell me that’s not gorgeous!