Stitching a Tea Cozy Garden

A few months ago, I (Teri) joined the local chapter of the Embroiderers' Guild of America. Each month at the meetings, an embroidery project is offered; at my first meeting it was a cute little tea cozy, made with buttons. I love tea, and I have a vast collections of buttons, so I gathered some fun buttons and threads and set off on my new adventure. 

I love to challenge myself to learn new stitches or to make them with different threads or applications. For this project, I chose to focus on using Painters Threads and floss by Weeks Dye Works. I had a wonderful time experimenting and just playing, without a real plan. The tea cozy went together pretty quickly, and I think it looks pretty happy sitting on my counter. I had intended to make it as a gift, so it will be a bit difficult to part with it! 

We were given a lovely kit that included the cut pieces of linen, the liner, and the insulating fabric. The butterfly buttons were available for us as well. This is how I created my button-embroidered tea cozy garden.

Choosing the buttons and arranging them was my biggest challenge.
Once I was pleased, I took a picture to follow as a guide.

Stems were lightly drawn with pencil and stitched with a stem stitch or chain stitch.
I used Painters Threads pearl #8, Turner. I then sewed all the buttons on with Weeks Dye Works floss, two strands of Saffron.

From left to right, these are the stitches and threads I used for each flower.

Picot stitch with Weeks Dye Works floss, Grenadine

Pistil stitches with Painters Threads pearl #5, Van Gogh

Colonial knots with Painters Threads pearl #8, Grandma Moses
and lazy daisy stitches with Weeks floss, Grenadine

Lazy daisy petals with Painters Threads metallic braid #4, Grandma Moses;
 ribbon stitch leaves with Painters Threads 7mm ribbon, Turner

 

The bee is made with DMC pearl #12, a bullion knot made with one strand each of black and yellow, with wings of loops made with Painters Threads metallic braid #4, Longan. To see a tutorial on making the bee, read our Garden Gate post by clicking here.

Drizzle stitches with Weeks floss, Autumn Leaves

Colonial knots and fly stitches with Weeks floss, Grenadine

This button is ringed with cast-on stitches that overlap to create the petals,
made with Painters Threads metallic braid #4, Van Gogh.

Left leaf—fishbone stitch, right—stacked fly stitches
Painters Threads pearl #8, Turner

Leaves, left to right: lazy daisy stitch with 7mm ribbon, stacked fly stitches with pearl #8, stacked lazy daisy stitches with Weeks floss, ribbon stitches with 7mm ribbon. Straight stitches with metallic braid #4 makes the flower. (All but floss is Painters Threads.) 

Pekinese stitch with Painters Threads pearl #8, Grandma Moses

Bullion stitches with Painters Threads pearl #5, Van Gogh

I changed the position of the butterfly button from my original plan; it seemed to be more balanced amidst the flowers. And the bees just completed my garden. As I write this, the weather is dreary and damp. I think I will go make some tea! Won't you join me?

Tea for Two

Ahh a cup of tea! Tea has been an important part of many cultures throughout history. Maybe it's a bracing cuppa in England, or solemn Japanese tea ceremony, or even a special time with friends in one's home. Regardless of where you are, drinking hot tea can look different depending on where you are in the world, but when drinking hot tea, a teapot of some sort is common amongst all cultures. Keeping that tea warm is important as well which brings us to today's post!

When Teri and I (Kara) were in Birmingham, England, this past summer for the Festival of Quilts, I had not brought anything to stitch. With all the vendors and beautiful quilts, my fingers were getting itchy, so I of course went shopping. At a vintage linens booth, I found a beautiful piece of fabric that was just asking for some embroidery embellishment, so I bought it. Then I needed some threads for said embellishment, and where could I possibly find fun threads in a giant quilt show? Stef Francis of course! 

My cast of thread characters

Stef Francis is a wonderful supplier of hand-dyed fibers and fabrics out of the UK. I was able to find almost everything I would need to embellish my little piece of vintage cotton. I picked up two skeins of hand-dyed ribbon from another vendor, and I was set. The rayon tape (viscose chainette is another name) and chenille thread would be perfect for the rose, and the hand-dyed #5 perle would make lovely variegated leaves.

Straight stitches with the chenille and rayon threads mimicked the rose, and a fishbone stitch for the leaves really showed the variation in the perle cotton. I was able to finish the rose, yellow flowers, and leaves in Birmingham but had to set the piece aside for a while because—life. 

This is what I had finished when it was put away.

So how does an old piece of fabric and tea fit together? It finally came to me one day that I should use my embroidered vintage bouquet on a tea cozy! I found the perfect piece of fabric to match the colors of flowers, leaves, and bow, so that motivated me to finish the project and get my tea cozy started.

My cozy fabric, lining and batting.

I finished the vintage piece by adding a few beads in the yellow flowers and a piece of silk ribbon to mimic the bow.

Beads for the little yellow flowers.

The silk ribbon bow for a 3D look

Trimmed and ready to attach.

Searching the internet, I found this tutorial and used the directions to find the size pattern I would need. Once I had my pattern, I cut out 2 each of my cozy fabric, lining and batting.

Pinned pattern

I am a big fan of 505 spray and used it to put together my batting and cozy fabric. Then I centered my embellished piece on one side of the cozy and pinned it.

I thought maybe I would just appliqué the piece, but then I dug through my stash of vintage trims and found a perfect one to stitch around—and I had just enough!

Now it was time to quilt the two pieces. I used 1" painter's tape as a guide for the quilting and machine quilted a diagonal, cross-hatch pattern in red thread.

I just re-positioned the tape each time I stitched a new line.

One side finished

Quilted and ready to put together

Before I sewed the two pieces together, I pinned a 3-inch piece of folded velvet ribbon inside the two quilted parts for a little handle. To assemble the tea cozy, I sewed the cozy pieces, right sides together. I did the same with the lining pieces, but left a section open for turning. Once that was finished, I tucked the lining inside the cozy, right sides together, matched the edges, and sewed all the way around.

Bottom edges sewn together

Ready to be turned

Already turned

After turning the whole thing, I stitched the opening closed and tucked the lining in–and my cozy was finished!

The finished tea cozy!

I love re-purposing vintage pieces of fabric and trim, and this little project really came together. What was once just a scrap of printed cotton from the past, now has a new life keeping a teapot warm. 

Now to sit down to a nice, cup of tea!