Tea Anyone?

I am so excited! Downton Abbey the movie opens this week and I can't wait. My sisters and I have been planning to go see it since we first heard the announcement that it was going to be made! Our tickets are bought and we are sitting in the third row, center in reclining chairs at a local theater. Oh my gosh I just am giddy with excitement to see all my favorite characters again, Anna, Mr. Bates, Lord and Lady Grantham, Mr. Carson just to name a few. So I'm celebrating the opening of the Downton Abbey this Friday and making a tea cozy! I have a pretty yellow teapot that I've always wanted to make a tea cozy for.  It seems like an English thing to do. I do love black tea with honey and have gone thru several jars of local honey to sweeten my tea this year. My hubby got me hooked on it. He doesn't drink coffee but loves tea, hot or cold. This mini tutorial is sorta long, so bear with me....

Here's my pretty yellow teapot....

You will need; backing fabric, batting, cream thread (or color of your choice) yellow strips of fabric ranging from 1" wide wof to 2 1/2" wof, rotary cutter, scrap fabrics for applique, black thread.

I measured my teapot and determined I need my tea cozy to be 13" wide by 9" tall. I eyeballed it using a tape measure measuring how tall the teapot was and then width side to side (spout to handle)

I then layered my background fabric, cut slightly bigger then the 13" x 9", batting and then I sew my strips onto my fabric, batting sandwich one by one in a quilt as you go fashion.

Sew and flip.... sew and flip.... sew and flip....

…. until you have a full sheet of strips the width and length that you need.... Make two. I did not pay attention to matching fabric strips... they are both scrappy.

Then using a rotary cutter and a ruler, square your quilted fabric up to measure the size you need for your teapot cozy. I need 13" x 9".

No magic template... I used a dinner plate as a guide and rounded the two top corners on both 13" x 9" quilted squares.

Starting to look like a beehive already!

For the cute flower design I used my Sweet Flowers Applique pattern QD-249. I followed the directions and traced the design onto my heat n bond lite....

For the top of the tea cozy, I made a loop using a piece of scrap fabric. It measures about 1/2" x 5".... You can make yours shorter if you want to, no real formula. You just need to be able to lift your tea cozy off your teapot when you have tea.

Back to the applique... I made my flowers red and blue, you can make your flowers any color you want. I arranged the Sweet Flowers design following the placement sheet. To make the beehive entrance, I ironed some heat n bond onto a scrap piece of black fabric and cut a circle out. I positioned it onto the beehive among the Sweet Flowers design. Iron applique in place.

Machine applique around the design using a buttonhole stitch with black or dark brown thread.

Then stitch the bee's antenna and the bee's 'flight'. Then pin the 'loop' onto the top of the tea cozy matching raw edges so when you turn the tea cozy right side out the loop will be on top. Then layer the front and back of your tea cozy together right sides together and sew a 1/4" seam leaving the bottom open. Turn right side out!

To bind the bottom edge, cut a 2 1/4" x WOF strip, fold in half wrong sides together lengthwise and iron. Line the raw edge of the binding on top of the raw edge on the outside of the tea cozy and sew a 1/4" seam all around the bottom.

Fold the binding edge to the inside and clip or pin in place.

Sew in the ditch making sure to catch the binding on the backside. Sew black buttons onto the flower centers.

Time for tea! Your hot water (or tea) in your teapot will stay nice and warm in the tea cozy for tea time. So sit down and enjoy a cup of tea and a sweet treat. I made some double chocolate chip cookies, yum! I'm all ready for a tea party!

~Beehive Tea Cozy~

 I hope you enjoyed my little tutorial on how to make a tea cozy. It's a great way to use up some scrap fabric from your stash. The Sweet Flowers pattern that I used can be found in my Etsy Shop both in a packaged pattern and also as a PDF instant download.  In fact you could switch this up and make a holiday tea cozy by using holiday fabric and one of my Christmas designs. 

Happy quilting,

Cindy and Belvedere

The cookie was the first thing to disappear during tea time.... now to drink my tea