A Very Sunny Tea Cozy Tutorial

When I saw the NEW Hungry Caterpillar panel from Eric Carle & Andover, I knew I wanted to make my mom something with it.

Not actually with the caterpillar part, with the sun. Every time I look at it I hear the song, You are my Sunshine, which my mom used to sing to me when I was a child.

My mom loves hot tea and she needed a newr tea cozy, so here it goes.
Supplies:
One New Very Hungry Caterpillar Panel
1/2 yard of Cotton Batting or Pellon Thermolan
1/2 yard of lining fabric
Basic machine sewing supplies.

I cut the panel in half and measures my Fiesta tea pot, mom's teapot is a bit bigger,

I folded a large piece of brown paper in half to make the pattern.
To make the half circle I made a compass with a piece of twill and a pencil.
My pattern is approx. 16 x 10. It may be a bit large for most tea pots but I did not want to cut off too many for the sun rays.

Use the pattern to cut 2 each of liner, batting or Thermolan, and the front Sun panel.

Make a fabric sandwich.
Lay liner WS up then the batting or Thermolan, then the sunshine RS up.

Use your walking foot and or your free motion foot to quilt the three layers together. I used a combo of free motion quilting and straight line quilting. Sew around the outside edges.

The quilting is decorative so go wild. I outlined the sun rays and then did free motion inside the sun face.

For the small loop at the top.
Cut 2  x 6 inches of the liner fabric.
Fold in half WST
Sew 1/4 inch away from the fold.
Trim excess seam allowance down to 1/8 inch.

Use a safety pin to turn.

Trim to the stitch line.

Pin the skinny strap to the center top.
Baste in place.

Put the Sun sides together. Line up the ground. Sew 1/2 inch seam on the curved top.

Finish the inside seam.

Cut a strip 2.25 x WOF of the liner fabric.
Fold in half.
Iron
Sew the raw edge of the strip to the bottom  raw edge of the Sun side of the cozy 1/4 inch SA.
This is just like binding a quilt.

 Fold the strip over the raw edge and hand sew it down inside the cozy.

Turn it Sun side out and pop it on your favorite teapot.