English Paper Pieced tea cosy

This small-scale project is a great introduction to quilting, and a fantastic way to transform your favourite scraps of fabric into something that is both beautiful and practical. The little rows of printed cotton hexagons look really impressive, plus the design can be easily adapted to match your favourite teatime crockery.

Essentials

Fabric: printed cotton, six fat quarters or 130, 6.5cm square scraps, plus extra for loop, Lining, plain cotton, one fat quarter
Wadding
Thick paper
Template plastic

Dimensions List

Finished Tea Cosy: 36cm x 26.5cm

Make fabric hexagons

Cut 130 6.5cm squares from printed cotton fabric. Locate the hexagon motif on page 148 and trace onto template plastic. Draw around the hexagon template onto thick paper 130 times, then cut out each shape. Pin one paper hexagon to the wrong side of each fabric square.
Thread a needle with coordinating thread and knot one of the ends. Fold one side of a fabric square over the paper template and backstitch the corner, ensuring that you do not sew through the template. Tack stitch around all of the corners of the hexagon, then repeat for the remaining 129 hexagons.

Create hexagon patchwork

Locate the tea cosy template and using it as a guide cut out two pieces from the lining fabric and two from wadding. Open out the shapes. Hand sew the fabric hexagons into rows by placing them together right sides facing and whipstitching the edges
For the first row stitch nine together, then for the second, third, fourth and fifth rows, sew a hexagon shape into each of the gaps between the hexagons in the previous row. Sew eight hexagons together for the sixth row, then seven for the seventh row and finally five hexagons together for the eighth row.