Felt Drink Sleeve

During the winter months I’m all about hot beverages. Right now my favorite thing to drink is Lipton Green Tea Cherry Pomegranate. It’s awesome. I’m convinced that the combined magic of green tea and pomegranate is doing something amazing to my insides.

Anyhoo – today I got a snazzy new water bottle in an effort to drink more water and decided that it needed an accessory. Hence, the felt drink sleeve.

Should you be so inclined to make your own drink sleeve you will need:

2 pieces of felt in different colors
stiff innerfuse
embroidery floss
sewing machine

Start by bonding the innerfuse to the felt. Follow the directions on the innerfuse package. Stiff innerfuse is necessary because felt is terrible at holding it’s shape. Try it without this product and the drink sleeve would be worn out after one use. It only takes a few minutes and you should have three layers; felt, innerfuse, felt.

Measure the circumference of your bottle/cup and add two inches. Decide how wide you want it (mine is about 2 3/4 inches) so your fingers will stay nice and cozy.

Cut out the strip of felt to your measurements. The next step is optional but once you see mine you will not want to have it any other way.

Sew a decorative edge. Here is a tutorial in sewing a decorative edge:

Using embroidery floss (6 strands), knot the end and start in one corner. Push the needle up through the middle of the innerfuse layer.

Push the needle through front to back.

Thread needle front to back through loop. Pull through and give a little tug (away from you) to tighten the knot.

Insert needle back to front.

Pull through until a small loop is left.

Pull needle through the loop, back to front. Pull all the way to the end and give a little tug (away from you) to tighten the knot.

Continue this all the way around the felt. If you run out of thread, that’s okay. Just tie it off and start where you left off with a new piece of thread.

Once that it done it’s time to sew the ends together. Place your felt rectangle around your cup and pinch it together as tight as you can. Mark with pins where the ends meet closest to the cup. Sew.