Bottle Cap Trivets and Coasters

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       Did you know that bottle cap crafts are a thing?  I didn't know until recently when I received an amazing gift! 

     My friend, who is my Son-in-law's mom, Joanne, was able to serve as a missionary with her husband in Uganda.  She loved it there.  Recently she was able to go back for a visit.  When she came back she brought me a gift!  She is so sweet that way.  She brought me this beautiful trivet, or hot pad, that the women in Uganda make as a business enterprise. 

I love the vibrant colors! I fell in love with this idea.

    If I were over in Uganda, I would definitely support their businesses! But, I also looked at this craft and decided that I wanted to try it for myself! I think that these would make such great gifts for my sisters and daughters or for wedding or shower gifts.  And, don't forget that Mother's Day is coming along!   
     The first trick was to find the bottle caps!  We don't drink very many drinks that come with metal bottle caps.  I saved a few, but I soon realized that the saving used caps method was going to take me a long time! Also, many of the caps once used would be misshapen and need to be re-flattened.  Then, someone told me that they carry new, unused bottle caps at Hobby Lobby!  Well, they do, but they are expensive! Luckily I had my 40% off coupon because the price is around $10 for a bag of 24 caps. I bought some, but if I am going to make very many of these, I need a better source and I have found one! Amazon has them by the gross for $6.00! 

But, for my first try, I used 23 or the 24 bottle caps from Hobby Lobby.

     While I love the vibrant colors of the original trivet from Uganda, I looked through my fabric stash and decided on some more subtle gray tones for mine.  It took some experimenting to decide how large of a circle of fabric it would take to cover the bottle cap.  I finally settled on a wide mouth canning jar as my template. 

     The first thing I did was cover all of my caps.  Since I was using four different fabrics, I cut out each color as follows:

• Decide which print will be the center and cut out 7 circles from that print.
• Cut 5 of 2 of the other prints
• Cut 6 of the final print

     Next, you must gather around the outside of each circle.  You could do this on the sewing machine, but I found it relaxing to just do it by hand with a needle and thread while watching TV sitting on the couch.  It really goes fairly quickly. Click on the pictures below to read the details of how I put this trivet together. 

You don't want to gather right at the edge, leave space like I did here. Then, just take a running, gathering stitch around the entire circle.

Now, pull the thread, leaving it attached to the needle to start gathering the circle up.

Slip the bottle cap inside the circle, flat side down.

Pull the gathering around the bottle cap.

The excess fabric will create padding at the bottom of the trivet. Tuck the raw edges to the inside and then, using the still attached needle and thread, begin stitching it in place, pulling the fabric in tightly as you stitch around and back and forth.

Just pull, stitch and tuck until the back of the bottle cap looks like this.

The top should look nice and smooth.

Now you can start arranging the bottle caps into the pattern that you would like. Then, start stitching them together where ever the surfaces touch. I used a double thread for extra strength and about 3 stitches in each spot. I loved it at this stage because I thought that this would be a perfect coaster size!

I loved this houndstooth print! I can imagine doing an entire trivet or set of coasters in varying colors of this print.

    Using only 23 bottle caps, my trivet came out much smaller than the original African one, but it will work nicely for a smaller hot bowl or casserole dish.  I can hardly wait for my order of new bottle caps to come in so that I can make more in many sizes! It will be fun to pick out more fabric combinations to match the kitchens of the people I want to give them to! 

    I hope you give this craft a try! It is easy and useful, the best outcome! 
​    Do you make anything with bottle caps?  Let me know about it, because I may want to try it!