Making a Tea Cosy - Stage 1

Here is the pretty pink material sent to me from Canada by QuiltE transformed into two appliqué teapots.   Just for the fun of it, I am not saying what this is going to be, but somebody is bound to work it out before I have finished.

To start I made a rectangle using sage green with polka dots, measuring 4 and a half inches by 13 and a half, and two pieces of cream measuring 8 inches by 13 and a half.  The seams were pressed open.

Next I did the teapot appliqués using a paper stencil, following the method described in this previous post.  The picture shows the pink material after being trimmed to just over half an inch of the machine stitching.

Next I turned the work over and worked from the back and did two more lines of stitching inside the first line, so there are now three lines of stitching side by side.  I worked from the back because it is easier to follow the first line of stitching when you can see it against a plain colour.  For me three lines of straight stitch are the equivalent of a line of zigzagging.

Then I trimmed the pink material away a fraction less than an eighth of an inch from the stitching. The raw edge will not fray enough for the appliqué to come apart from the backing, and this is not a mega posh project calling for blanket stitch.  Of course, anyone with a fancy modern machine would have that raw edge covered, but I can live with it...