Tag: Sewing

Valentines Day – DIY Tea Bags

This project was my valentines day gift to Ben. My inspiration came from trolling through the many pins for valentines gifts and cards on Pinterest. I first came across some pins for making your own teabags and since we love drinking various flavors of tea at our house I thought this would be a great gift. Then I found this post for a card and I decided to combine these ideas. This was the result. 

Tea

To make this you will need 
Coffee filters 

Scissors 

Sewing machine 

Tea 

Teaspoon 

Cooking string 

Stapler 

Brown paper 

Stickers 

Pens and pencils 


Method 
Cut filters into rectangles as shown below 

Sew up the 2 long sides and one short side. Trim the edges and excess string.  
Fill each tea bag 1 teaspoon of tea into each bag.  


I made 3 different types.  

Prepare 1 length of string per bag (10-15cm) 


Fold the corners of the open end to the middle of the bag creating a triangle at the top. Loop 1 end of the string around in a small circle. Place on the middle edge of the triangle. 


Fold top of triangle to bottom and staple.   


Pull string slightly to ensure it doesn’t come loose. 


Cut 4.5 x 8 cm rectangles out of brown paper. 


Fold each in half and decorate one side as you wish. 

Write a message or the name of the tea on the other side. Tape the loose end of the string inside the fold of paper then staple the edges together. 
To make the individual wrappings 
 for each bag cut 16 x 9.5 cm rectangles out of brown paper. Fold in half and sew up the 2 sides.  

Trim extra string. Write tea type on the bag then place tea bag inside the bag. Fold over the edge and secure with a sticker (or tape) 

Fancy Cloth Small Serviettes


By far my favorite meal to serve to friends is Tea. Morning or afternoon tea It doesn’t matter but I like getting out my nice teapot/s and tea cups and making a range of small nibbles to eat. So one day I made some small serviettes to go with my tea set. These serviettes are very easy to make and don’t take a lot of fabric. They are also easy to embellish to make them your own. you could add matching lace or ribbon around the edges or even some buttons or beads in the corners. I made 4 small square serviettes using 1 fat quart but if you have more fabric and want bigger ones you can use the same method on any size square or rectangular piece of fabric.  
Makes 4 Small Serviettes: 
1 Fat quart fabric, (54×46 cm) 
Matching thread 
Iron 
Scissors 
Sewing machine or needle 
Ruler  or card with cm measurements marked on it.  
Iron flat your fabric. Fold then cut into quarters.  

One edge at a time fold the edge in 1cm and iron flat. To do this I use a piece of card from the middle of a fat quart marked with 1 cm apart lines from 1 edge.  


Unfold the edges and cut the corners off where the folds meet (pictured below). This will make your corners much neater and not to thick. 


Fold each edge under itself and iron flat creating a rolled edge.  

Stitch around the edge, keeping on the hems. If using a sewing machine, start at 1 corner stitch along the edge in the middle of the hem and just before you reach the edge stop the machine with the needle in the fabric. 

 lift the foot and turn your serviette so that it is in position to stich the next edge.  

place the foot down then repeat until you come back to the first corner add a couple of back stiches before cutting your threads.  

Cut of any excess threads. you can leave the serviette as is or add any embellishments you like at this point.  (e.g. Lace or ribbon around the edge or beads, buttons, or embroidery to the corners.)