![](\"\/blog\/images\/teacosy0.jpg\")
<\/p>\n…than a good cup of tea. We even import our tea from England because it’s just not the *same* in Canada. Our teapot is round and comforting, but our precious tea gets cold before\u00a0hubby can have his third mug.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
As a (slightly belated) Christmas gift, I’ve made him\u00a0a quilted tea cosy. I’ve seen knitted tea cosies that have holes at the front and back for the spout and handle, but the only quilted tea cosies I’ve seen are like giant hats, and you have to remove them to pour the tea. Maybe it’s just easier that way, because the knitted fabric will stretch to fit over the teapot appendages, but quilted cotton obviously can’t do that. But why should that stop me – there has to be a way to make a quilted tea cosy that you don’t have to remove to pour the tea…<\/p>\n
I played around with folding a piece of paper until I found something that looked about right:<\/p>\n
![](\"\/blog\/images\/teacosy2.jpg\")
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Starting with a\u00a0rectangle for each side (dimensions depend on the size of your teapot),\u00a0sew line A to line B and line C to line D. Then sew the two sides together along lines E and F. These lines are dotted because the easiest way to get the angles right is to NOT measure these lines initially, but draw them in after sewing A-B and C-D so\u00a0E and F\u00a0form one straight line along the top of the\u00a0cosy.<\/p>\n
I started by quilting this cat and mouse fabric together with extra thick batting\u00a0and some scrap cotton on the back (using curved lines to avoid cutting any cats in half with the quilting!)\u00a0and then cutting it in\u00a0half to make my two rectangles: I sewed my A-B, C-D, E-E and F-F lines. The double layer of extra thick batting proved too much for my sewing machine, so I had to finish them by hand. I then trimmed the resulting triangles of batting that I had created inside the cosy. I repeated the process using black cotton (unquilted) to form the lining, and tacked it wrong sides together with the cosy.<\/p>\n I handmade bias tape from the same fabric using the Dread Pirate Rodgers’ Continuous Bias Tape<\/a>\u00a0instructions. I have never made bias tape before, and this method worked really well for me – the best part was cutting the tube I had created into a long spiral and it magically turned into a perfect bias tape strip.<\/p>\n I applied\u00a0one long strip of\u00a0bias tape around all the edges using Heather Bailey’s wonderful Continuous Quilt-Binding<\/a>\u00a0instructions. I sewed the two sides together under the spout and then sewed a black hook and eye under the handle at the back, so the cosy can be removed.<\/p>\n
\n\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n![](\"\/blog\/images\/teacosy3.jpg\")
\nLeft: front after quilting; right: back after quilting<\/em><\/p>\n![](\"\/blog\/images\/teacosy4.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
![](\"\/blog\/images\/teacosy5.jpg\")
![](\"\/blog\/images\/teacosy6.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![](\"\/blog\/images\/teacosy1.jpg\")
<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n![](\"\/blog\/images\/teacosy7.jpg\")
<\/p>\n