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Fabric Candle Holder Pattern

New Decoupage Candle Holder and Napkin Ring Pattern

After reading Durwin Rice’s beautiful book, New Decoupage, I was inspired to think creatively about decoupage media and techniques.

I’d seen some pretty draped fabric candle holders like these at a friend’s house, but didn’t know what could be used to plasticize and stiffen the fabric. It would have to make the fabric non-flammable as well as stiff enough to create and hold different shapes.

Here’s the technique I developed after much experimentation. The fabric is both soaked in and coated with PVA glue and decoupage medium to make it almost non-flammable.

You could melt the plastic and then burn the fabric if you really tried, but the tiny flame from a votive candle a couple inches away will not catch it on fire or melt the hardened acrylic.

Candle Holders Materials

• Small glass candle holders for votive candles
• 10” square of fabric for each – heavier weight cotton works the best
• Elmer’s Glue-All
• Mod Podge
• Large-mouth jar like a pickle jar
• Flat paint brush
• Glass of water for brush
• Narrow neck bottles to hold drying fabric sculptures

Candle Holder Instructions

Suspend a glass candle holder upside down on a narrow necked bottle. Dilute Elmer’s Glue-All with equal parts water in jar. Stir well or cover tightly and shake gently. Place one square of fabric in the jar. Reach in and move the fabric into the liquid to thoroughly soak it. Grab it in your hand and squeeze out the excess solution.

Pull the fabric from the jar and stretch it to smooth out any wrinkles. Find the center of the square and place it over the center of the suspended candle holder. Make sure the four points hang down evenly. Then shape the folds you want and allow it to dry completely.

Using the brush, apply two to four coats of Mod Podge to the outside surface of the fabric allowing two hours between each coat. Don’t be alarmed if the fabric seems to soften up again with each coat. It will harden again in the same shape as long as you leave it suspended upside down to dry. The more coats of Mod Podge you apply, the thicker and more plastic-like your candle holder will be.

Insert candle and light to enjoy the romantic glow. These are especially pretty on the table for outdoor meals and also make lovely luminaria candle holders to light a path for your guests.

If you have extra fabric, make these easy matching napkin rings.

Napkin Ring Materials

• Scraps of matching fabric
• Cardboard core from paper towels or plastic wrap with the proper diameter for napkin holders
• Mod Podge
• Brush
• Glass of water for brush
• Scissors
• Embellishments like the gold crochet cord used in the example (optional)

Napkin Ring Instructions

Use a rough serrated knife or a small saw to cut the cardboard into rings of equal size.

Cut fabric rectangles a little longer than the circumference of the rings (for overlap) and wide enough to cover the inside circumference with a little overlap. You don’t want any cardboard showing through on the inside of the napkin ring.

Coat the outside of each ring with Mod Podge.

Center a strip of fabric against the cardboard ring and smooth it around to cover the ring.

Before overlapping the end, brush some Mod Podge on the place where the ends will overlap.

Coat the inside of each ring with Mod Podge.

Push the top edge of the fabric inside and smooth it onto the Mod Podge. There will likely be a few small wrinkles because the inside circumference is a bit smaller than the outside. Smooth these flat and apply more Mod Podge as needed to hold them down.

Spread more Mod Podge on the glued fabric edge where the bottom edge will overlap. Smooth the bottom edge into the ring as before. Allow to dry two hours.

If you are including the decorative gold cord as shown in the example, wrap cord around ring three times and cut. Use Mod Podge to glue it in place.

Add additional coats of Mod Podge as desired. The more coats, the thicker and more plastic-like your napkin rings will be.

I sell the candle holders for $8 each or $15 for two and the napkin rings are eight for $8. This is a brand new product but I’ve already had a few commission orders where people bring me fabric left over from their drapes or tablecloth or ask me to bring swatches for them to choose from. I think this will be a winner!

In the flyleaf of New Decoupage, Mr. Rice is described as “America’s foremost practitioner of decoupage”. When you see the gorgeous photos of his work, you will know why.

He shares the benefit of his years of experience and is also quite an entertaining writer. This book is everything you ever wanted to know about decoupage, but didn’t know who to ask!

Think Outside the Box

As Durwin Rice suggests, I try to think outside the box to create new uses for decoupage techniques. I found that the candle holder technique above can be used to form fabric into various useful and decorative objects.

Think of a shape you would like to make. If you can figure out two things, you can make it using fabric decoupage. First, you need to find a way to form the fabric shape.

This fabric basket was shaped over an upside down cardboard box suspended on a tin can.

Second, You need to make sure it holds its shape as it dries and hardens. Here you can see that I used paper clips and large pinch clips to maintain the box shape.

This box is made from two pieces of coordinating fabric glued together right sides out with PVA glue.

For more on decoupage, visit The Decoupage Index Page.

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