When Darryl Kerrigan said appreciatively of his wife's cooking, "it's what you do to it, luv", I think he meant the details maketh the dish. So too with sewing.
I loved every stage of Ayumi's gorgeous Patchwork Please Tea Cosy, but my favourite part was finishing the little tag to hang from the top loop. I didn't have any crocheted cherries called for in the pattern, but I thought that a little tea bag tag would be cute and appropriate. Plus, who can have a cup of delicious hot tea without also wanting a piece of cake? The tea bag tag is a very simple 1 1/2" fussy cut square of linen with a bit of polyfill stuffed inside. I overcame my fear of raw edges to give the taggie a sort of natural, papery look and feel.
This project was also my first ever attempt at paper piecing and I can say I LOVE IT! There were a few occasions on which the seam ripper was grumpily applied, but overall I think I have the hang of it. I enjoyed watching the letters and the tea cup emerge from a handful of seemingly unrelated and random scraps and seams. Before I started the paper piecing, I felt I needed to read a few online tutorials and watch some video tutorials so I could visualise the process (as Ayumi suggests in her book). I found Carol Doak's online tutorial extremely useful.
I chose fabric scraps for the letter "limbs" that were significantly higher in volume than the background scraps, to make sure the letters would stand out and not be drowned out by the background I think the tea cup is probably not strong enough, but the floral is so pretty that I am quite happy with it.
Raw edges make me unhappy (it doesn't take much), so I added some cheerful floral and spotty bias binding to bind the inside raw edges.
Et voilà! I think it might be time for a lovely cup of English Breakfast Tea. Why don't you join me?
Amber x
