I’ve finally finished it – a Christmas Tree Tea Cosy!
It was a request from my sister-in-law for her husband’s birthday which is in the middle of the Christmas season. I couldn’t find a pattern anywhere which was exactly right so I adapted patterns and invented my own bits. Firstly I used a pattern from millionbells at Ravelry:
But this pattern meant sewing on all the branches individually and I hate sewing. So I used her base/lining as the shape and then made the outside of my teacosy using crocodile stitch. I had just mastered this through Mikey at Crochet Crowd’s brilliant video from youtube. So lots of crochet and very little sewing, my kind of project. I threaded little silver bells and red beads alternately onto my yarn so I could include them at the end of each crocodile stitch “branch.”
When sewing it up I left a hole for the spout, and the handle on the other side. I joined the bottom with elastic. The pattern suggested a button but there are people in my house who would have the tea all over the table if they had to do up a button at the base of a tea cosy. The elastic worked just fine – it held the 2 sides together while giving enough stretch to get it over the teapot.
Here’s a close up of the crocodile stitch, although the little silver bells don’t show up so well on these photos:
and again, another photo of the finished tea cosy, with the star on the top from millionbells pattern:
It was a lot of work, trial and error to get it just right. But I think it’s rather fun!
Dressed in Crochet 