Anytime I start a sewing project that fulfills a practical need, I can’t help but want to make it pretty, too. This teapot cozy is one of those projects. It has a job to do in my home, but I want to feel creative joy whenever I see it!
Practical Necessity
Two teapots have recently broken at my house. They were the kind that have the infuser basket inside, so that you can brew loose tea. Being ceramic, they held their heat well. Our new glass pot allows the tea to cool down far too quickly. So, I decided to make a cozy for our new teapot. I have always found teapot cozies to be lovely and quaint, and I’ve wanted to sew one for years. Necessity has driven me to finally make one.
I’m going to share with you how I’ve made it step by step. As usual, I checked my fabric stash first for anything that suited what I had in mind for this teapot cozy. Small sewing projects like this are perfect for using up pieces of fabric that are left over from past projects. I only save scraps from fabric I especially like, though, otherwise I collect far too much!
You may like other sewing projects I have designed like this one, and this one. They are great for using up scraps as well!
A Cozy Tea Shop
A tea shop shape came to mind right away, so I decided to go with that as a design for a tea cozy. It seems appropriate for a teapot to be keeping warm in a tea shop!
I measured my teapot, and it is about 10 inches long from the end of the spout to the handle. It’s about 6 inches in height. I decided to make the size 12” by 14” accordingly. There needs to be ease for a teapot cozy to fit nicely over the teapot.
Supplies:
Drop-cloth fabric- 2 pieces cut to 12” by 14” (any sturdy woven fabric can be substituted)
Linen fabric- 2 pieces cut to 6” by 14” this is the contrast fabric for the roof.
Floral cotton fabric- 2 pieces cut into shapes that resemble flower beds.
Linen fabric- 2 pieces cut to 2 1/2 inches by 3 inches for the windows.
Tea-dyed linen- 1 piece cut to 2 1/2 inches by 4 inches for the door. I have a tutorial for tea-dyeing fabric here.
Quilt batting- I used this one, but any kind should work fine. I used two layers of this batting for my teapot cozy.
Embroidery floss- any color you prefer, used to make the windowpanes.
Embroidery needle
Sewing machine
Iron
Measuring And Cutting Out The Main Shape
First, I measured my drop cloth fabric and cut out two pieces, 12 inches high and 14 inches wide. These would make the front and back of the teapot cozy.
Next, I measured my blue linen fabric for the roof. These needed to be the same width- 14 inches, but only 6 inches high. I cut them out and placed them on my drop cloth pieces, lined up with the top edges.
The Roof
I wanted my teapot cozy to be a quaint little cottage, so I decided to give it a gambrel style roof.
Therefore, I would need to shape the roof a little bit. So, I measured from the right top corner down 3 inches and made a chalk mark. Then, I measured 3 inches in from the right top corner and made another mark.
From there, I lined up my ruler along these two marks and drew a chalk line, forming a triangle.
I repeated this process on the top left corner of the roof.
After that, I repeated all of this on the back of my teapot cozy and pinned the roof onto the house.
The final step for the roof was to fasten it on with stitching. I sewed all around both sides and the top, ¼ inch from the edge. I tried to sew neatly along the edges to make sure the shape of the roof was maintained when turned right side out. Then for the bottom of the roof, I topstitched close to the edge. That topstitching will be the only visible stitching of the roof on the final product of the teapot cozy.
The Windows And Door
This was the really fun part. Adding the windows and the door made it look like the cottage it was intended to be. I measured and cut out linen for the windows making them 2 1/2 inches by 3 inches in size. For the door, I used a scrap of my tea-dyed linen and cut it out to the size of 2 ½ inches by 4 inches.
The next step was to position the door and windows. I placed the windows onto the front, 2 inches from the side edges and 2 inches from the bottom. The door was centered, measuring 5 ½ inches from the side edges and lined up against the bottom edge of the drop-cloth fabric.
I pinned these all into place and topstitched 1/8-inch away from the raw edges.
After that, I used a water-soluble fabric pen and ruler to draw lines on the windows to mark out the panes.
Now, onto the window stitching!
Adding Windowpanes And A Doorknob
In order to define the windows, I added some embroidery stitching to my teapot cozy. I used a dark green cotton embroidery floss and decided to make back stitches.
First, I threaded my embroidery needle with the full six strands of the embroidery floss.
Next I knotted the end of my thread and brought my needle up about ¼ inch from the bottom topstitching of my window, on the blue line I had drawn down the middle.
From there, I put the needle back down through the fabric at the topstitching, filling in that gap that was left from the first stitch.
I continued to sew in this backstitch to the top of the window and did the same stitch on the horizontal line, repeating it all on the second window.
For the doorknob, I sewed a tiny ¼ inch shell button about halfway down the door. It ended up looking a little too low, but I left it there. You may want to put it a little higher, due to hemming up the bottom which will make the door shorter.
The Batting
Batting is important for a teapot cozy as an insulating and supporting layer. So using a double layer for each, I pinned the front and back down onto the batting and cut around the edge, using them as my patterns.
I pinned, then stitched the batting onto the front and back of the teapot cozy close to the edge with my sewing machine. This was sewed on completely around the front and back sides.
I trimmed any areas of the batting that were hanging over the fabric, so that I could accurately line up the edges as I sewed the front and back together.
Flower Beds On My Teapot Cozy
After I had the batting stitched to the backs of the teapot cozy front and back, I got the idea to put flower beds on either side of the door.
So, I found two scraps in my scrap basket that I liked. They were already a useful size and shape for the flower beds, I just trimmed about an inch off of each one. I liked the shape, I thought they looked like they belonged there.
After trimming the fabric pieces, I pinned them onto the front of the cottage below the windows and overlapping them a little, ½ inch from the bottom edge. Then I machine stitched them into place.
Hemming The Bottom
For the bottom hem, I simply folded up the bottoms ½ inch, pressed flat with my iron, and pinned. Then I stitched a ¼ inch hem straight across on the front and back pieces.
There is a frayed edge along the bottom from the flowery fabric, which I think is really pretty!
Embroidered sign
You will see an embroidered sign on my teapot cozy. I chose to not include the instructions for it here, just to keep it simple. But it wasn’t terribly difficult to make. The embroidery stitch and method of transfer was easy to find online. If you would like a tutorial here, just let me know of your interest in the comments below!
Finishing My Teapot Cozy
Finally, all that was needed was to sew the front and back together!
I placed them right sides together, ensuring that the hems were lined up first. You will want the hem line to be straight, and you can always trim excess fabric along the sides or top if it doesn’t line up perfectly. Sometimes, regardless of how careful you are, pieces of a sewing project will be uneven. But, you will definitely want the hem to be aligned.
If you do need to trim off excess, just be sure that the roof line across the top is even as well, because that will be very noticeable if it’s crooked.
Stitch from one bottom corner around your cozy and end the seam at the other bottom corner. I sewed this seam with ½ inch seam allowance.
Then, turn it right side out and push out the corners, so you can see the lovely roof line.
When I turned my cozy right side out, I had a section where some stitches from other parts of the sewing process were visible.
I used a seam ripper and pulled out those stitches to give my teapot cozy a finished, neat appearance.
Press all the edges with a hot iron, and voila!
This was a really fun sewing project for me, I hope you enjoy it too!
Let me know about your fabric choices in the comments below.
Thanks for reading,
Courtney
Jenny Gilland
This is so cute!! The sewing machine intimidates me but I’m determined to learn eventually!
Courtney
Thanks! I know! It is scary, I always tell my daughters to be willing to make mistakes.
Anja
I love this cute tea cozy, especially with the little applices and embroidery!
Courtney
Thank you so much!