Just in time for winter, here’s a tutorial on how to make your very own coffee cup cozy! These are environmentally-friendly replacements for the cardboard sleeves that come on to-go cups of hot coffee. They make great holiday gifts for the coffee lovers in your life, and I always have one stashed in my bag so I can use it on my morning coffee. Best of all, they’re cheap and easy to make with only a few things.
Supplies:
2 or more sheets of craft felt (usually around 50 cents a sheet at Michael’s)
A couple sheets of paper and a pen
Some sewing pins
Thread or embroidery floss and a needle OR for the no-sew option: a hot glue gun
Step 1:
Take a cardboard coffee sleeve from Starbucks and carefully break it open where the edges overlap. Lay it out flat on a sheet of paper and trace around it with a pen. Cut out that shape. This is now your pattern for making a coffee cozy!
(All photos below are courtesy of Stasia Higgins)
Step 2:
Lay the pattern on a sheet of felt and pin it down. Carefully cut around the pattern – you won’t be doing anything to the edges, so make them look nice and neat!
Step 3:
Choose a design for your mug cozy. One of my favorite tricks is to look up a simple outline of whatever object I want—for instance, “tree silhouette” for a holiday gift—then print out the image at an appropriate size. You’re making another pattern, so you can freehand or use a cookie cutter to get a fun shape too—anything works! However you choose your design, trace or print it onto paper, then pin it onto a different color of felt and cut it out.
Design ideas: flower, paw print, reindeer, coffee bean, heart, oversized button, polka dots and more!
Step 4:
Then, pin it onto the very center of your cozy. As a guide, you can look at the cardboard sleeve from Starbucks and see where their main logo is positioned. Sew it on (or if you must insist on breaking my seamstress’s heart, hot glue it…)
Step 5:
Once the design is attached, all that’s left is to finish turning this piece of felt into a functional coffee cozy! Using the cardboard sleeve or a coffee cup as a guide, determine where the ends overlap and pin them there. Sew (or glue) the two ends together.
Step 6:
Ta-da! Now you have your very own super-cool handmade coffee cozy!
One of my favorite coffee cozies!
This craft is a fun and easy way to make thoughtful gifts or just add some happiness to your morning coffee. This tutorial is just the beginning—you can make these as intricate and creative as you like. Some of my favorites involve more complex felt decorations or buttons. So go out there and have fun! I can’t wait to see what you all create.