Two different kinds of Coffee Cozies to sew

I am a tea drinker and so is my husband however, my parent would drink coffee and drink a lot.  This blog is for those of you who like to take it on the run.

Manly Coffee Cozy

Materials:  Cardboard cup cozy (for pattern), Brown and black/grey felt, Black sharpie, Needle and thread, Felt Glue, clothespins, black hair elastic, and button

Directions:

First you'll need a cardboard cup cozy or a pattern for one. I *had* to get myself a latte in order to get mine. Ah darn.

Placing it over brown felt, traced it twice using a black Sharpie. One piece will be for the front, the other for the backing.

To make the tread pattern studied a bunch of tire tread photos and decided this is the basic idea. If you draw a mountain/pointy tooth line as long as your felt needs to be, you only have to cut once down the middle and then a second time on the other edge, therefore making two pieces with only two cuts. 

 

If you line up your pattern close enough to the edge of the felt you only have to make two cuts instead of the three I show in my really sophisticated drawing done with MS Paint.

Once you have the outside frame, cut a strip of black felt approximately 3/8 of an inch wide and snip it off in 5/8 of an inch long pieces. I ended up needing 25 of these pieces. These will make up the center of the tread and should be laid out in a spaced out herringbone brick sort of pattern.

Using felt glue to hold the pieces in place until they can be stitched, lay out the pattern like so. Because mine wasn't exactly measured I had to do a little trimming and wiggling around to get everything to fit.

Once everything was glued and dried use embroidery floss that then divided in half (three strands instead of the full six) and stitched each rectangle and peak in the pattern shown below with the white dots.

Not exactly pretty but you can see how sturdy to make it.

For a fabric java jacket you usually need a button and loop closure or Velcro. Since the cup size is likely to change, go with button and loop - making the loop out of an old elastic hair band to allow for adjustability.

Use felt glue and some clothespins placed the end well inside to make sure it won't accidentally pop out when in use. When it is dry, apply several stitches around it (hiding them in the black felt on the front).

Sew on your button of choice and make sure it is sewn on very well. Place about 2 and 3/4 inches inside the edge - this will keep it taut on smaller cups but still allows for adjustability to larger cups as well.

Once the elastic and button are stitched you are ready for the backing to go on. This is going to hide all your stitches and add an extra insulating layer.  Cut the backing 1/4 of an inch shorter than the front piece, applied felt glue and stretched it out and held it in place with clothespins while drying. Cutting it slightly shorter and stretching it should prevent rippling in the felt when it folds around the cup.

Use divided embroidery floss to blanket stitch the back and front pieces together.

DIY Fabric Coffee Sleeve

Materials:  Small amount of fabric and interfacing,     Hair Tie, Button, Coordinating Thread, Straight Pins, Scissors, Sewing Machine, Coffee Cup and either a paper coffee sleeve or a template

Directions:

Use either the coffee sleeve or the template and cut 2 from material and 1 from interfacing.

Following the manufacturer’s instructions, fuse interfacing to wrong side of one sleeve piece.

Sew along 3 sides (leaving one short side open)

Turn inside out, iron flat. On the open side, turn under about a half inch and iron.

Place and pin the hair tie in the center of the open side.

Sew side shut and top stitch along all sides.

Using the coffee cup measure button placemen and hand sew the button on.

Fasten to coffee cup by sliding hair tie over the button.

    

Share your ideas on this or anything here on the blog either here or e-mail me at stipple@verizon.net.  I look forward to hearing from you!