the red room

One of my goals this year is to make most of the presents I give my friends and family.  This is a way to learn some new sewing skills, save money, and not add to consumer waste by up-cycling materials and avoiding packaging. I also think hand-made gifts are the best. My friend Meg gave me a mosaic heart last year and it is one of my favourite gifts because she made it for me. This tea cozy is a present for my Mother and was not intentionally meant to look like a pink version of the American flag but somehow ended up that way. All those American poets I am reading? Maybe. Thankfully Mum lived in the U.S. for a number of years so the country is close to her heart. I also think America should be able to share this pretty colour combination.

I’ve never made a tea cozy before or fabric roses so there was quite a bit of trial and error. The striped fabric is a heavy weight cotton/canvas and the blue polka dot / rose fabric is 100% cotton. I would love to say I washed both first to pre-shrink them but I didn’t! The cozy is stuffed with a thin batting fabric and the inside is lined with the dots and stripes. Trying to figure out how to sew the lining so it came out right side up was like fabric string theory. I followed two very good online tutorials to make the tea cozy (although changed the shape somewhat): Tea cozy on Rusty Bobbin and Fabric flowers on Calamity Kim. I just have enough material left over to make another cosy for my Grandmother who turns 90 this year.