How to Sew a Quick and Easy DIY Tea Cozy Tutorial

This site contains affiliate links from which we may receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. Thank you for your support!

I love tea… I love teacups and I love teapots!!!

When I tell people I love teapots they usually say, oh, I would never use one because I use a tea bag, not loose tea…. my response is that I do too! I don’t see why you can only use tea pots with loose leaf tea….

The other thing with me and tea is – I either like Iced Tea or hot tea… none of this lukewarm stuff! So yes, I also love tea cozies to keep my tea nice and hot!

I used to buy them because I always thought they were hard to make… but today I am going to share with you a quick and easy way to make a tea cozy, one that will fit most sizes of teapots. If it happens to be too large for your own teapot, then it’s easy to make it fit the size of your teapot, by cutting the main fabric pieces smaller.

This fun project is great for beginners and experienced sewists alike. The simplicity of the design makes it easy to make in different sizes as mentioned above.

I think it would be fun to make another tea cozy one day with a simple fabric for the main body of the cozy, and then add appliqué designs. When I design one like that I will be sure to let you know!

A Quick and Easy DIY Tea Cozy

If you have been following along with this blog, you will know I love quick and easy projects. This is one of those! It is quick to make, doesn’t have any difficult sewing techniques, and makes a great gift!

For the warmth of the tea cozy, you can use batting pieces or an insulated batting like Insul-bright, or if you want it extra insulated, use both!

• 3 Fat quarters (one for the outer fabric, one for the lining pieces and one for the accent fabric or contrast pieces)- I used Lori Holt’s Cook Book fabric
• 2 meters matching ribbon
• 1 meter 3/8″ ric-rac – I used this from Lori Holt (aff link)
• 1 fat quarter of batting OR Insul-Bright (aff link)
• sewing machine, rotary cutter, cutting mat and other general sewing and quilting supplies

Cutting Instructions

From the fat quarter of exterior fabric for the outside of the tea cozy cut:

• 2 rectangles 10 1/2″ x 10″

From the fat quarter of lining fabric for the inside of the tea cozy cut:

• 2 rectangles 10 1/2″ x 10″

From the third fat quarter (the accent fabric) cut:

• 2 rectangles 10″ x 2 1/2″

From the batting (or Insul-Bright) cut:

• 2 rectangles 10 1/2″ x 10″

From the Ric- Rac cut:

• 4 pieces 10 1/2″

From the ribbon cut:

• 2 one meter pieces

Sewing the Quick and Easy DIY Tea Cozy

Seam allowance is 1/4″ unless specified.

Step 1

Take one of the front rectangles and place on top of a piece of batting. Then place one piece of ric-rac on the top edge and stitch through all layers. Repeat with another piece of ric-rac along the bottom edge:

With my 1/4″ Bernina foot (#37), I lined it up with the indent like this:

Step 2

Place one of the inside rectangles on top of the piece you just sewed, right sides together. Pin and stitch around all the sides, leaving an opening on one side.

TIP:

To make it easier and neater to sew closed later, sew in from the sides when you start and end like this:

Step 3

Trim the corners and then turn right side out. Press and top stitch all around, closing the gap as you go.

You could use a walking foot to top stitch, but I prefer to use my quarter inch one.

With my 1/4″ Bernina foot (#37), I lined it up with the inside like this:

Make two!

Step 4

Take one of the 10″ x 2 1/2″. Fold the ends over about 1/4″ and sew down to neaten up the edges:

Fold the rectangle in half lengthwise, wrong sides together, and sew 1/4″ down the length:

Press the seam open and press the strip so that it looks somewhat like this:

Flip it over to the front and it should look like this:

Make two!:

Step 5

Take one of the strips you just made and line up about 1 1/4″ inches below the top of the tea cozy panel:

Pin and sew in place as seen below. Do the same with the other panel.

Step 6

Place both pieces right sides together. Join them together by sewing a little over 3/4″ length on each of the corner edges as seen in the photo below:

Step 7

Time to add the ribbon! Thread one ribbon through the front and back of the tea cozy:

I used my handy dandy “purple thang”

Tie an knot and do the same with the other piece of ribbon, but start and end at the other side so that it looks like this:

Step 8

Find a tea pot to see if it fits….

Step 9

Heave a big sigh of relief because it does!

Step 10

Make yourself a pot of tea, and have a cup of tea! Enjoy 🙂

My favorite tea? Twinings Lady Grey!

If you would like to download this tutorial as a printable pdf pattern, there are two options:

1. If you are a Creative Fabrica member, then it is free for you to download!
2. If you are part of our Days Filled With Joy Membership, then it is there ready for you to download!

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial and if you have any questions or something is unclear then don’t hesitate to leave a comment and ask! I think it is simple enough and if you are not a teapot or teacozy person, then it would make a lovely gift for someone in your life who does!

I started drinking hot tea when I was a teenager and living with my aunt and uncle. Every afternoon after school my aunt would make a pot of tea and we would all drink a cup and talk about our day… We each had our own teaspoon so that we knew whose cup was whose… My aunt had a lovely double walled tea pot that kept the tea nice and warm, and of course a tea cozy… such lovely memories!

If you are a tea drinker, tell me… what are your favorite tea memories, when did you start drinking tea and what is your favorite type of tea?

This post has been updated. It was made originally for a blog hop.