Top off your homemade, or even store-bought, gourmet jam with these charming embroidered linen covers. Here are the designs for our favorite toppers, though you could always embroider an initial, which would work on any type of jar.

Be sure to make a few extra, as these make thoughtful gifts you'll always be happy to have on hand. This is a great project to use up your small fabric scraps – and if you are short on time, you could stamp out the name of the jam with fabric ink and rubber stamps.

See a larger photo of the finished craft here.

Materials (for one jam cover)
• 1/4 yard (23 cm) brown linen
• Embroidery floss in assorted colors
• Embroidery needle
• Embroidery scissors
• Iron
• Pencil
• 36" (91.4 c m) narrow ribbon

Note: The directions below are for jam jars with mouths that are 3" (7.62 cm) to 31/2" (8.9 cm) in diameter. You may want to increase or decrease the size of the designs (link at the top of the page) and the circle you cut in step 2, depending on the size of your jars.

Directions
1. Using the designs provided above, transfer the one you wish to use onto the linen. Embroider the design on the linen.

2. Cut the fabric to an 8" (20.3 cm) circle, with the embroidered design in the center.

3. With your fingers, press under 1/8" (32 mm) all the way around the circle. Finish the edge by hand using a blanket stitch.

4. Mark eight evenly spaced eyelets around the cover, about 1" (2.54 cm) from the finished edge, drawing a circle about the size of a pencil eraser for each.

5. To make an eyelet by hand, first stitch around the marked circle using a running stitch. Then, using very small, sharp embroidery scissors, cut a hole just inside the stitched circle. Using a pencil or your fingers, gently turn the cut edge to the Wrong side. Finish by doing a small satin stitch all the way around the hole, completely covering the previous stitches.

6. Alternatively, you can make buttonholes on a sewing machine or use metal eyelets.

7. Thread a narrow ribbon through all the eyelets and then back in the other direction until you reach where you started. Place the cover on a jam jar and cinch the ribbon to fit.

Making your own jam is easy with our home preserving guide.

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Excerpted from French General: Handmade Soirees: Simple Projects for Special Occasions , copyright 2009 by Kaari Meng. Used by permission of Chronicle Books. All Rights Reserved.

No part of this excerpt may be reproduced except with permission in writing from the publisher.