How to Make a Gypsy Lantern

I am in love with this little project, being the hopeless romantic that I am. What better to way to decorate a pergola for an outdoor dinner party? Or to hang in the bathroom while you take a long bath? I was delighted to find this project in Marie Claire Idees and adapted it to come up with this tutorial.

I hope you enjoy making some of these along with me.

Materials

Cotton Fabric Scraps or Tissue Paper. Make sure that you use material which is quite thin. I love the lantern I made using Kaffe Fassett scraps.
A clean, empty glass jar. I used a small vegemite jar for mine.
18-guage wire. You can buy this from a hardware store. If you are using a bigger jar, then use a thicker wire to support it.
A sewing machine (the Maric Claire version was hand sewn with embroidery cotton which looked great but I decided to machine sew mine)
Cotton Thread
Scissors
Hot Glue Gun
Wire Cutters
Round-nosed pliers or square-nosed pliersInstructions
Step 1 Making a quick pattern.

(Photo above shows the jar and the finished pattern piece)

Firstly measure the circumference of the top of the jar. Divide this number (in my case it was 20cm around) into 4 because there are four pieces to the lantern = 5cm. Now add 3cm to this = 8cm. Now mark out a strip of paper which is 8cm wide. Take the paper and hold it up to the jar and cut it to the length of the jar + 8cm. Now you have a strip of paper the right size.
Now take the paper you have made and mark two points on either side about 5cm from the bottom. Fold the paper in half and draw a point in the middle. Now cut a rounded point to the middle of the paper. Here is your pattern piece.

Step 2 Cutting out and sewing together the lantern pieces

(First photo shows cut out pattern pieces, Second photo shows lantern pieces when they have been sewn together leaving the top open and seams on the outside)

Use your pattern piece to cut out four pieces of fabric or tissue paper. If you are using a thin cotton, iron on some interfacing to give it more structure.
Now pin together the pieces and sew them from the top to the bottom, leaving the seam on the outside. I left a 1.2cm seam allowance down the sides, then when I sewed the bottom I made the seam allowance about 0.5cm. When these are sew together you now have your lantern.

Step 3 Gluing the lantern to the jar

Now glue around the very top edge of your glass jar and slide the lantern into it. Stick the top opening of the lantern onto the line of glue around the jar.

Step 4 Wiring the lantern

Now cut a 30cm length of wire, find the centre and make one loop in it. Then bend the wire into a crescent shape. Take your pliers and bend each end of the wire upwards to make a little u-shape.
Now cut another 50cm length of wire. Hold the first piece of wire onto the top of the jar and wrap the second piece of wire around the jar and on the inside of each end, to keep it in place. When you reach the end of the wire twist the two end together to keep it in place.

And there you have it. Now put a tealight in the bottom of the jar, light it up and you have a very romantic one-of-a-kind lantern. These are so simple to make you could make thirty of them for a garden party.

Enjoy! And let me know what you think. I hope that you can work out the way it works even if you work in inches not cms.

Mia

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