Making a Tea Cosy - Stage 3

Finished!  Thank you QuiltE for the lovely fabric!

And well done QuiltE and Gavin, both of whom spotted a tea cosy in the making.

Hiding underneath the cosy is a two and a half pint teapot...

... but the cosy can stand up on its own when there is nothing underneath it.

Here is the method:-

First, round off the top corners of the two quilted panels.  Cutting round this 6 and a half inch plate gives a nice curve.

Make a loop and machine stitch it in place at the top centre of one on the panels, stitching about an eighth of an inch from the edge.

Stitch panels together a generous quarter of an inch from the edge.  For the backing when quilting I used a lightweight cotton and synthetic mixed fabric that has been in the cupboard for years. Because I am lining this tea cosy this fabric is not going to show and I can happily leave the loose ends of thread hanging on the back. 

When the seam is done, machine stitch an eighth of an inch from each side of the seam line.

These two extra lines of stitching keep the edges flat on the inside and the tea cosy will keep its shape once you turn it the right way out. 

For the lining I used thermal curtain lining.  I cut two pieces 12 and an eighth by 8 and three quarter inches, and rounded off the top corners with the plate..

This stuff is stiff, with one fluffy side, and is very fray resistant, so I can get away with sewing just over an eighth of an inch from the edge.  I sewed them with the two smooth sides together.  On the picture they are already sewn together, so it is the fluffy side that is showing.
  
I have used more yielding thermal curtain lining in the past that has a slight tendency to fray, but I prefer the stiff variety.

Next I slid the lining into the cosy.  It was a good snug fit.

Now for the trickiest bit.  The lining and the outer shell are never exactly the same size.  The lining seemed a bit tight, so I hand sewed some running stitches at the edge of the quilted outer shell to gather it slightly.  Then I did two parallel lines of machine stitching with a large stitch to tack the two edges together before adding the binding.

That gave a firm easy edge to work with when binding the bottom edge.

I dread to think how many gallons of tea I got through when working on this cosy.

This post is being linked up with the Let's Get Acquainted Monday Link Up at Plum and June, hosted this week by Nat at Made in Home, so you can visit lots of other blogs showing interesting projects.