The Most Beautiful Cup Cozy in the World

I was head-over-heels in L-O-V-E when I spotted this ruffled cup cozy on Sew For Home's blog. I knew I had to make it right away! Well ok, it took me a couple days to get to it, but it turned out gorgeous! I did change up the Velcro closure for a button-and-hair-tie loop though...because the cozy wound up being a bit short for my Venti Starbuck's-size cups from which I consume incredible amounts of Ice-Tea-No-Lemon (as I'm known at certain restaurants, or ITNL for short). I want ICE and I want TEA in my Ice Tea - no lemon, no sugar, no sugar substitute...just ICE and TEA, thank you very much ;-) The next one I make, I'll add extra width to the pattern. It probably was meant to fit the smaller coffee cups, but I didn't have one around to verify that.

I used the same fabric to make a skinny scarf to match - I made the scarf first, and then thought I'd just use the same fabric to try out the cozy. If I had done it the other way around, I probably would have thought to add a ruffle of the raspberry fabric to each end of the scarf - I think that would have been adorable. But I'm not going to take out all my stopstitching on the scarf to add it at this point. However, I'll keep it in mind for my next scarf.

And there WILL be a next scarf, because I've made at least 15 of them since before Christmas! What, or should I say "Who" got me started on this scarf kick was Monique, my partner in a swap...she sent me a scarf made from a charm pack. It got my brain kick-started because they are such an easy, quick gift to make! And once I got started, I just couldn't stop! I've used mostly 2 1/2" strips - I bought ALL the new Bali Pops that just came out...I smiled at the quilt shop lady and said "Merry Christmas To Me" as I picked up the whole armfull of them and handed over my Mastercard. I used faux Minky (the JoAnn's version) or ultra cuddle for the backing. They are so soft and cozy! And cute! I cut thirty-two 6" chunks of the 2 1/2" strips, pieced them, then trimmed both sides to measure 5" wide before adding the backing, clipping, turning, and topstitching. I included matching Shoop-Shoop Bags with these.

So now...with the ruffled cup cozy to go along with them, I see SETS in the future. So if you are my friend or acquaintance, you might just get a set for the next gift-giving or swapping occasion!