A Felt Coffee Cozy for Valentines........or Whenever

Here is the Felt Coffee Cozy I made for my son's teacher for Valentine's Day. We paired it up with a Tim Horton's Coffee gift card and a nice little valentine from Ike......We hope she will like it. Again I used the little bird......can't get enough of that little bird! This time I've traced out the shape of a paper coffee cozy for you with a slight increase in height........since I like mine a little taller. One day I picked up about a 1/2 meter of Melton Cloth from a thrift shop and brought it home to felt it in the washer and dryer. Since the fabric is woven it has a bit more structure and less stretch in it than if I had used felted sweater scraps. However you can feel free to use felted sweater scraps it that's what you have available since the lining fabric will keep the cozy from stretching out of shape. You can even use craft felt to make this if you don't intend on washing it........but I cannot speak to the sturdiness of it or how long it might last.

If you use a sturdy enough felt......like the felted wool Melton Cloth that I have used (or a felted wool blanket would work very well as well) you really only need one layer. I have only added the lining layer in this case for a more finished look. If you use a fabric lining and you choose to close your shape with buttons.....you will need to use the button hole attachment on your sewing machine to finish the button holes........if you use a single layer of heavy felt......you will not need to finish the button holes. If you do use buttons, make sure to choose ones that are fairly flat so they don't make it uncomfortable to hold. When marking button holes...pin your shape closed, and place your button where you want them to be. Then mark on edge B of your felt, where the center of each button sits. Your button hole will be start at that very point and will move back towards edge C just until it is large enough to allow the button to pass through. Button hole length should equal button diameter. Also mark the center of each button on the underneath layer on edge C.....this is where you will sew your buttons.
And here is the pattern I used for making felt cozies, along with some decorative little birds if you'd like. The branches are embroidered with 3 strands of cotton floss in a split stitch while the outlining to attach the bird and wing pieces are done with a blanket stitch. There are many other embroidery stitches you might like to try other than the few I have used, on this project so have a look through and chose some others you like.
Hopefully the pattern below is clear...feel free to leave any questions here if it is not. This pattern should print to fill a letter sized (8 1/2 X 11) paper. The PDF version is here and it will allow you to print the pattern to its proper size. Hope your Valentine is a cozy one! Looking for another quick Valentine project......this is what we made last year for Ike's teacher.