Upcycled Cotton Reel Table Place Setting
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Anyone who sews will have a bunch of empty cotton reels or spools. Back in the day they were wooden and cute looking but even new plastic ones can be upcycled and given a new purpose to save just throwing them away. You can even buy brand new empty cotton reels but you’d probably be better to just talk to someone you know who sews, I’m sure they’d be happy to give you some for free!
With Christmas coming I’ve turned some used cotton reels into table place settings for your festive Christmas table. They could also be used to display photos or Christmas cards too.
You might also like to see:
20 Beautiful DIY Poinsettia Crafts
Christmas Projects to Sew in Under an Hour
Upcycle old Christmas cards into new ones to send this year
I’m joining the Christmas Craft Blog Hop with this craft idea, so hang around when you get to the bottom of this post as you’ll find lots more Christmas craft ideas from a team of creative bloggers.
Gail | Purple Hues and me - Terri | Christmas Tree Lane
T’onna | Sew Crafty Crochet - Marci | Stone Cottage Adventures
Michele | Coastal Bohemian - Allyson | Southern Sunflowers
Julie | Sum of their Stories - Vicky | Vicky Myers Creations
These cotton reel table place settings are really really easy to make, all you need is a few empty plastic cotton reels, some Christmas patterned paper, paperclips, elastic bands and glue. You need 2 types of glue; a pva type (I used Hi-Tack but Aleene’s Tacky Glue would be perfect too) and a hot glue gun.
Covering the spool with paper
First trim a length of patterned Christmassy paper the width of the inside of your cotton reel and long enough to go all the way round.
Apply a wiggle of pva glue all around the cotton reel and apply the Christmas paper strip. Secure in place temporarily with an elastic band until the glue dries.
Next cut a circle of paper to cover the top of the cotton reel. You might be lucky and find your cotton reel is exactly the size of circle punch. I found my 1” circle punch was perfect for several of my smaller spools. A cutting machine might be perfect for this too.
Alternatively you can just draw around the cotton reel and then cut just inside the line to get a circle the right size.
Attaching the paperclip
Place the circle onto the spool and push the paperclip into it centrally, creating a little slit.
Once the circle is ready put it to one side and apply a good blob of hot glue into the centre hole in the spool. Push the paper clip into the hot glue, just a little way, and then hold it in place until the glue sets. It’ll only be a few seconds.
Apply some more pva glue on the wrong side of the paper circle and then drop the circle over the paperclip.
Press the paper down and leave it all to dry. Job done!
Creating the name cards
All you need to do now is create some little name cards for all your dinner guests.
I cut rectangles of card, 5cm x 3cm (2” x 1 1/4”) stamped them with my sweet little robin stamp from the Little Stamp Store and wrote the names with a red pen.
You can paint the plastic spools first of course, if you have a particular colour scheme in mind.
More themes for your upcycled table place settings
You can make table place settings for your family and friends for other celebrations too of course. Thanksgiving, Easter or just more generic ones that match your dining room decor for your next dinner party or birthday dinner.
Now check out all these creative Christmas craft ideas from my craft blogger friends:
