Tea Bag Tea Cozy - Part Two

Welcome back! The tea bag paper tea cozy how-to continues....

Here you can see the lady's dress of burn-out velvet and lace. The cap and yarn ball are both from the knitted cap I upcycled to make this. And her chiffon scarf hair is a thrift store scarf I wore once to hold up my very 1950s ponytail during a retro dress-up.

Once the front was completed, I traced and cut a back piece from a lovely plaid wool boucle jacket remnant. I decided to create a lining that was padded rather than pad the outer layers and then insert the lining as most directions require. I did this because the lining I wanted to use was a cotton sheet from the 1970s or 80s and the fabric is not very heavy. Stitching it to some flannel gave it some heft.

I stacked the front and back fabrics right sides together and stitched along the stitching lines. To reduce any possible puckering, I clipped little Vs into the edges. I turned this carefully right side out and pushed out all the edges carefully. I was surprised at how durable the paper was. It never threatened to tear at all.

 

Then I cut the sheet and flannel pieces and faux-quilted the sheet along the lines already in the print of the fabric, just the dark outlines. Stacking the lining - flannel, sheet, sheet (right sides together), flannel - I stitched these together, trimmed the seam allowance closer to the stitching, and pressed the seam open.

 

 

 

The lining was slipped into the outer shell and tacked in place by hand along the seams at the top and near the bottom edge.

I decided not to attach a bound edge and simply trimmed the whole thing along template lines, turned the raw edges of the lining and shell inward all around and stitched around to finish the lower edge.

I added the story written out on tea bag paper to the back and used a manly sort of bow tie I repurposed off another project of mine for the top.

And now it's time for tea. This cozy fits perfectly over both my 4 cup tea pots. 

Tea Bag Tea Cozy - Part One

This story came my way, sadly, without any source. What I know is that a man named Michael Bowron, somewhere, sometime, won a tea story competition with this tale:

"My grandmother was an avid tea drinker and knitter. She would knit a tea cosey to fit the tea pot. My grandfather would use the warm tea cosey as a hat when he went to milk the cows. Needless to say, there was always a ready supply of tea cosies in the drawer." 

This story came to life for me in this illustration by Amaia Arrazola. 

 

Putting these together, the tea bag paper tea cozy I'd been wanting to make came to life.

Here is how I did it:

First I made a template for a standard tea pot using this tutorial. I cut a piece of unbleached muslin (calico in Australia) large enough to fit the template. I covered it with used, dried, emptied, and opened tea bag papers. Then I ironed the papers onto fusible paper, peeled the back off and ironed the papers to the fabric. 

Of course, the overlapping ends did not fuse, but that's okay. It was just to create a base. 

Next I sorted out the more interesting and unevenly stained tea bags and started cutting out squares. The squares were machine stitched together in strips of seven and then the strips were joined together. Because the template tapers, I used a strip of six and then five at both sides. This made the front of the cozy.

 The seams were finger-pressed open and laid atop the original paper/fabric piece and pinned in place along the edges.

The template was traced onto the back of the fabric. Stitching lines were also traced and then the patchwork and fabric panel were stitched together in between the lines to hold the whole tea cozy front together.

I trimmed along the template edge and the front was ready for embellishing.

I traced the outline of Amaia's illustration onto the tea bag paper front, leaving out the top hat since that was to be a knitted cap. At first I thought I would embroider all but the cap, which would be a piece of an actual knitted cap. But then I decided on a mix of applique and embroidery.

The hubby needed to look like someone who would wear a tea cozy to go milk the cows. Yes, he needed a red plaid shirt. I used the drawing to make a paper template and basted the fabric to it and stitched it to the panel using an invisible applique stitch along the edges. I removed the basting thread and the paper insert.

I appliqued the crafty lady's dress from a bit of burn-out velvet from a small purse I had and edged it with a bit of lace. Her hair is a wadded piece of a teal chiffon scarf. And the yarn is pulled from the cap that I used to make his knitted tea cozy beanie.

But those pictures along with how I finished the tea cozy will be in Part Two tomorrow.