on the sewing table • hot cup jacket

A spin-off of the Sewing Bee at Happiness Comes, which I’ll be rejoining if and when it ever starts up again. Ever in need of accountability, I’ll post my sewing projects (and projects-to-be) here every Thursday most Thursdays now and then, when I have something to share. And I invite anyone who wants to join me to post a link in the comments.

On the dining room sewing table…
When I saw a box of little fabric hot cup jackets for sale at Whole Foods on Saturday, my first thought was: What a clever idea, followed quickly by: I’ll bet I could make these myself… And—as tends to happen when I hit upon something I think is a really good idea—when we got home I set to work right away figuring out how to do just that.

I used the cardboard sleeve from George’s coffee (we can’t go downtown without treating ourselves at It’s A Grind…) to make a pattern, and I’m saving you the trouble of working one out for yourself by including it here.

A few notes to make things easier—

• Be sure to pre-wash all the fabric you use to make these. They will absolutely need to be washed at some point, and you don’t want them to shrink when you wash them.
• If you use a decorative fabric for the outside, I recommend using something dark. (I did not follow that advice here, because I really like this print, but I’m going to have to either be really careful or wash this more often than I’d like to keep it looking so nice…)
• I recommend using two layers of heavy fabric—think canvas or home dec weight—in order to provide the insulation you want. If you use plain canvas, you can add a cotton print to the outside layer to make it colourful.

I used a bit of leftover canvas drop cloth that’s been hanging around in my stash forever, and a piece of cotton in a fun print. In hindsight, I should have fused the cotton to the canvas before I cut the outside pieces, but I didn’t think of it until after I was well into sewing the whole thing together. It worked out fine this way, but it would have been easier if I’d thought of that earlier…

Cut out your fabric pieces, bearing in mind that if you are using home dec–weight fabric or printed canvas & want the print to show on both the inside and the outside of the jacket, be sure to cut one pattern piece on the right side and one on the wrong side.

Before sewing up the side seams, take a minute here to press the bottom edge on each piece up 1/4 inch toward the wrong side. Fold it flat again at the edges before pinning and sewing up the side seams. (I don’t have a picture of this because I didn’t realize how much of a pain it would be to press after the side seams were sewn. Skip this step at your peril.)

Pin the outside jacket piece, right sides together, being sure to align the diagonal bit on the right side with the bottom on the left side, and sew the side seam with a 3/8-inch seam allowance. Clip the top and bottom corners in the seam allowance to remove some bulk, press the seam flat, and fold the bottom back up into place.

Repeat for the inside piece, this time aligning the diagonal on the left side with the bottom on the right side.

Turn the inside piece right-side-out and tuck it inside the outside piece; take care to align the pieces so the seams are opposite each other.

Pin the pieces together along the top edge and sew with a 3/8-inch seam allowance. This is a little tricky because of the small diameter, but if you go slowly it comes out fine.

I’m missing photos for the rest of this, but it’s easy enough that it doesn’t require illustration, I think: Trim the seam allowance, turn right side out, and press the top edge. Align the bottom edges—which you should have already pressed under…—pin, and topstitch about 1/8 inch away from the edge. Then topstitch along the top edge, and you’re done!

I’m generally more of a home-brewed-coffee-in-a-travel-mug sort of gal, but I like this one so much I think I’ll keep it for myself in case of a coffee emergency while I’m away from home. And there are a few big coffee drinkers in my life who just might find these in their stockings on Christmas morning…

What’s on your sewing table this week?