Ok so I’ve been bitten by the tea cosy bug!
But I have to say they are useful. There is so much yummy material to choose from too. Do I go pretty or maybe funky or do I try this with that… sigh so many choices.
Ok so this time I thought I would do some patchwork teacups. I have a terrific book that has patterns for lots of different 4 inch squares and found a pattern I liked. It took me a while to choose which pieces of material to use with each other. I put bits together and ummed and erred, then walked out of the room and came back again later to see what I thought. Anyway finally made a decision and made the teacup squares first.
The teacup has a napkin under it so I dug out some broglais englais. It was white, which I thought was a little too stark. I cut out two pieces and then dyed them. One in tea and one in coffee. I liked both of the effects so used both, one on each side.
I used vlisofix to attach it to the piece of material in the block. I then used satin stitch around the edge of the napkin to finish it off. I also embroidered a handle onto the edge of the cup.
I used some 5 1/2 inch squares that I already had cut out from a previous project. Love using up left overs 🙂 I sewed two squares together for each side of the teacup block.
Once the teacup block was finished, I lined it up to the side blocks and added a piece to the bottom of the teacup block to make it fit the size of the side blocks.
I made sure I had sewn enough material together to be large enough for the template, I then pinned this to the wadding. Again I used the wool wadding. It’s nice to sew and has proven to be great for keeping the teapot hot.
I quilted in the ditch of the teapot block then did a basic 1 inch wide stitch from top to bottom. I used grey as it was pretty neutral with the materials I used. I thought about using green but decided to go with the grey.
When I was happy that I had enough quilting I then cut out the shape. I folded the template in half both ways so that I ended up with a cross in the middle. This helped me to make sure the teacup block was more or less in the middle of the template.
I usually pin the template to the material and then cut it out with scissors, but this time I just winged it by pressing down with my hand and cutting with my cutter. Very slowly and carefully I might add and luckily it went okay.
Once I had both sides cut out I sewed them together and then I had to decide on the inside lining. Seems easy but it took me a day or two to decide!
I decided to embelish the teacosy with some suffolk puffs, also known as yoyos. I had these made already (excellent, another repurpose). Chose 4, 2 for each side. Then went through all my buttons to put on top.
Once these were done I then attached the lining. Not forgetting to pin the heart for the top of the teacosy.
So true confession time. The teacosy is a little short for my pot, but I will see if it still works… or I might send it to Fran. I measured it and I think it will fit hers.
Also the lining was a little tricky and it took me a couple of goes to make it sit properly.
Anyway here is my finished teacosy. Hope you enjoyed my journey 🙂
wrightconnections 