An oldie but goodie - Felt Cup Coozie tutorial

Hi all!  I didn't want you to think I'd fallen off the face of the earth, so I thought I'd share this tutorial I did last May.  Incase you were wondering, I just completed my Series 7 class (to get securities licensed) and have the test coming up on Tuesday.  Um, can you say STUDY?!?!!  Because that's all I'll be doing until then!  Yep, definitely feeling OVERWHELMED and stressed.  I really, REALLY want to pass the first time around (and therefore, am putting a lot of pressure on myself).  *thanks for letting me vent and positive thoughts and prayers are greatly appreciated*  On to the tutorial...

 I recently had some inquiries about how I made my felt cup coozie which you can see in the post HERE, so I decided to make a picture tutorial.  Like I said, I used a regular Starbucks cup thingie (goodness, not sure of the name?).  It measures approximately 10 1/2" X 2 3/4" and as you can see, there is a slight curve to it so it fits onto cups nice and snug.  I used the Sour Apple Felt I purchased from MFT.  It's a wool/rayon blend and when I say it's high quality, I mean, it's high quality!  AND they have 18 beautiful colors of it!  Serious *swoon*!  Trust me, I've tried to use the cheap stuff you can get from the bigger stores and it falls apart and you can't use it with any types of dies.  Period.  Don't waste your money.  ;)  {and ignore those Royal leaves I cut out of the coozie, please!  I hate to waste perfectly good corrugated paper!}

Once you've cut out the template, you want to have at least an inch overlapping.  I just folded up the paper coozie to see how much of an overlap it normally has and eyeballed it from there.  

Then I folded up my well-loved paper piercing pad and pierced 4 little holes as a guide for my needle.  Stay away from the very edge.  {ignore my non-manicured nails, please!  ;)  }

Once you've sewn your "X", loop the needle around the thread to make your final knot.  The thread I used is a linen/hemp type that I got from Michael's but you can find it just about anywhere.

Pull the loop down and tighten it as close to the felt as possible, as you see here.

Then just cut off the excess thread.  Here's what the inside will look like...  And don't worry, it lays nice and flat once it's on your cup. 

One down, two more to go!  I originally only sewed two "X's", one at the top and one at the bottom, but once I slid it onto the cup, the middle kind of poked out, so a third "X" in the middle took care of that.  Plus, it just made it more sturdy.

And another peek at the finished result!  Now you're free to embellish it as you wish!

And here's a close up of the finished coozie!

Thanks for stopping by!