Wedding Blog

Some of you asked me how to make the raffia’d jars we’re using in combination with our shepherd’s hooks for hanging candles and flowers. Well, here’s a little DIY instructional!

Step One
First, you choose your weapons. In this case raffia and jars… any size jar will work, really, as long as you have sufficient strength in your shepherd’s hooks and use enough raffia. In this case, I am using a 12-oz Ball jar from Wal-Mart.

Cut a piece of raffia long enough to wrap twice around your jar and leave you a handle of your preferred length. Then add a few inches for bonus. You will have to experiment with length a few times to see what works for you - appropriate length will depend on how wide the mouth of your jar is, how long you want your handle to be, and if you want to knot the handle in the middle.

Step Two
Wrap the raffia once around the jar, secured either in the grooves of the threads or beneath the lip. Tie tightly in a knot and leave a small end.

Step Three
Loop the long end of the raffia across the mouth of the jar and insert it under the raffia that is tied around the jar. This will be your handle, so adjust the length of the loop to be as long as you need it. Then, position the long end of the string (the one that’s underneath the bottom layer) exactly opposite your first knot and tie it in a knot.

Step Four (optional)
If you’ve made your raffia long enough to go around the jar two or more times (either for look or extra security), wrap it tightly around the jar and tie off the end on one of your original knots - using the second knot works better because you can then trim the end to match your first end, or trim both ends off.

Step Five
Repeat steps 1-4 to make a bajillion jars! Yes, using this method on larger jars will work just fine. I tested it with some big ones but to be extra safe, I doubled the handle back twice. My raffia ribbon is pretty strong, but test yours first to be sure.

Enjoy!