Cosiest Tea Cosy

So, this is the eagerly awaited follow-up to the 'no-knit mitts'. Just what did she do with the rest of the jumper?

Well, this is what I did.

Digging out some nearly forgotten fabrics and finding a scrap of unused oil cloth from another project, I went to and started chopping and sewing.

I chose the pale blue fabric because the embroidery on it kind of looks like wisps of steam, and the other fabric because they tied in the grey binding fabric at the base.

Making a template from an old cereal box, I cut out two pieces from the bottom of the jumper as the batting or wadding.

Than I pieced together the scraps to frame the oil cloth focal piece, and cut the finished piece down to size (finding the centre line of the oil cloth first).

I cut out three more pieces (2 x lining) and started to assemble the main body of the cosy.

First I glue basted the 'batting' to the lining pieces ...

... and then sewed them right sides together, using this seam to keep the batting in place by just catching it at the edge in the seam.

Next I sewed the outer pieces together (the picture show the centre line drawn earlier when cutting out the cosy shape).

Before assembling the inner and out layers, I snipped into the curves and trimmed down the seams.

Then I sewed the inner and outer layers together to make putting on the binding easier.

I made my own bias binding from a leftover piece of fabric. Making your own binding is a great way to use up leftovers, fabric you cannot stand the sight of or for which you have no further use. Especially if you're sick of it. Instead of looking at the pattern, you get a nice pop in the binding and more interesting work, and it's very easy - just a bit of triganometry and a ruler. But that is for a later blog.

Then using pins to hold in place, I sewed around. I was using an ordinary foot and my machine was not particularly happy with the thickness and so it skipped stitches every so often so I went over it a couple of times ot make sure it was securely stitched. I would recommend a walking foot for this kind of work as it is thick and multilayered and difficult to manage using a standard foot.

The eagle-eyed among you will notice the orientation of the pins. I usually advise pinning perpendicular to the direction of sewing and pinning like this may have added to my woes when sewing it on. I will pin differntly for the next one and see if that helps.

Et voilà! My reversible tea cosy!