Thursday, April 12, 2007

Yesterday we visited the new tea room that opened up in town. A good time was had by all. That's William's hand in the photo. He thought that was funny for some reason. But the reason I'm sharing the photo is so you can see that the tea pot arrived wrapped in a tea cozy. I've never used one before and I was really impressed by how hot it kept the tea.

So now, I want to make a tea cozy or two for myself. I spent time this morning looking for a pattern online and I'm undecided how to proceed. There appears to be three types of tea cozies. The first is a knitted, crocheted, and perhaps felted cozy. These are cute and maybe some day I'll try making one but at the moment I want to make a quilted cozy so I can play with some of my fabrics. The other two kinds are both quilted, or at least layered, cloth varieties.

The first type, like in the photo above, wrap and tie snugly with the handle and spout sticking out. They stay on the pot even when pouring. The advantages - they seem simple to make, can be made reversible with two different fabrics, and it looks like they might do the best job at keeping the tea hot. (Do they? Anyone know?) The disadvantages are that the tea might dribble onto them when one is pouring (well, no "might" about it if I'm the one serving!) and you don't get to enjoy seeing the tea pot itself.

The second kind fit loosely over the top of the entire tea pot and look like a cover for a toaster. I can't find a pattern for these online. I think it would be more difficult to make it reversible, although I don't really care too much about that. I like that they'd show off the fabric I choose to make it from well. And I'd still get to enjoy my tea pot when I uncovered it to pour the tea. I'm just worried that since it doesn't fit as snug it might not keep the tea hot for as long as the other kind. Although, it does cover the whole pot whereas the heat could escape out the top and spout of the snug kind. Hmmmm.

Any suggestions? Anyone know of any good patterns or ideas for measuring and making a pattern for myself?

If you want to hear more about our visit to the tea room, you can hop on over to Beach Treasure today.

2 comments:

Darla said...

Love tea rooms. Here's a simple way to make a cozy - even though I don't think it is exactly what you have in mind it might spark an idea.

Take an oval quitled placemat, cut it in half, sew the two halves together with the cut at the bottom. Try it over your pot, it might be too tall and you'll need to cut off a bit more. Put some binding around the bottom and a little loop at the top to pull it off. Away you go!

I have a crocheted cozy myself.

Darla

LoveAnna said...

I have a strange urge to make a tea cosy too! I do like the one in the photo - and they do keep the tea hot. When I was a kid we had one made out of an old hat, I wish I knew where it had gone!

Where did you find the patterns? I may have to investigate making one - or two, or three to fit all the sizes of teapot I use!

LoveAnna