Coffee Cuff

A few weeks ago, I mentioned that we gave out some eggs from our chickens for Teacher Appreciation gifts.  I also mentioned that we gave them something else that I'd reveal soon.  Well the time has come to share the Coffee Cuffs that I made for two preschool teachers in our lives.

I found the idea here while I was blog hopping one night and thought it was just too cute.  It seems that we often give coffee gift cards to friends for different events/celebrations.  So this just seemed like a great way to add a homemade touch to such a gift.  So here's how I did it.

First you'll need:
*two pieces of coordinating fabric at least 5"x13" (I used some fat quarters that I liked),
*insul-brite (found with the interfacing--it's the heat resistant batting stuff that's between pot holders),
*matching thread, pins, iron, yada, yada, yada.

I started out by making a pattern.  I opened up a cardboard cuff/sleeve and traced around it leaving extra space for a seam allowance.  I gave myself an extra 1/2" on both the top and bottom and 1" on both sides.  Then I traced the pattern onto the wrong side of my outside/main fabric.

 

Then I layered and pinned my pieces together in this order: insul-brite on the bottom, inside/accent fabric right side up, and outside/main fabric with wrong side up, and cut it all out together.

Then I used a walking foot to sew all three pieces together, making sure to leave one end open.  And trust me a walking foot is better.  The first one I made, I tried using a regular foot and it was not working out and got stuck.  I'd much rather use the walking foot than have that frustration.  I also realized that I didn't need the extra little triangle piece on my open end, so I cut it off.  That's what I get for being particular and tracing the cardboard cuff just so.  Ok, so sew the three pieces together, clip the corners, and turn.  I used a chopstick to push out the corners neatly.  Then press. 

See my opened non-triangular end?  Then I turned in the open end and pressed.

And top stitched along all four sides.

Then I had a long nice top stitched parallelogram that I wrapped around a coffee cup from my favorite local coffee shop.  I marked with a pin where I wanted the overlapping edge to end.  The I sewed right on top of the top stitched seam to make a circular shape.

Then I switched my thread and bobbin so I'd have green on top and purple on the bottom and I sewed along the top stitched seam that was on the inside of the overlap.  That way nothing is flapping up and everything lays flat.

c

And then it's done! Ready to slip over your favorite to-go coffee cup.  To give this, I stashed a coffee card inside the cup.  If I make this again, I will probably try to use some velcro rather than stitching the overlapping edges into place.  Because not all coffee cups are the same size around.  And it would also eliminate a random looking stitch on the outside of the cuff.

The coffee cuffs were just a part of a bigger gift from several parents for the last day of Teacher Appreciation week.  I volunteered to do a basket for each teacher.  I found the baskets for 1/2 off at Joann's (yay!) and hemmed the edges of a fat quarter to line them.  Then most of the parents and kids brought in something to go in the basket.  There were a few small gifts, notes of thanks, and some art work from the students.  It was neat to put all of our little things together and make a big impact of appreciation on these two wonderful teachers.  There baskets were overflowing with tokens of appreciation for all the hard work they've put in and how they touched the lives of each student and their family.