Sailor Knot Accents

"Tying the knot" becomes literal when you make these simple sailor's knots to scatter around your wedding venue!

Step One

Clothesline is the just the right thickness for these knots, is inexpensive, and is widely available at hardware stores. First, form a loop in the rope, as shown in the image on the left, and then bring the tail down in back, like in the image on the right.

Step Two

Bring the tail through the loop, and then pull taut. Voila! A neat-looking figure eight knot.

Step Three

Trim each end of the rope to the desired length. 

Step Four

Personalize the knots by cutting strips of paper, writing guest's names on each one, and notching the ends to keep with the nautical feel.  Use glue to adhere the tags onto the tail ends of the knots.

These fun knots are perfect as favors, place cards, or simply just as table accents.  Alternatively, the knots can be turned into napkin rings by using a longer length of rope when making theknot, and hot gluing the ends together to form a circle.

Slide a napkin through the ring and tuck a name tag inside for an instant table setting!

Project styling and photographs by Mary Swenson.