Keep your hand cool while drinking hot coffee on the go with a homemade coffee sleeve.
Those cardboard cup sleeves you find at popular coffee shops might help protect your hand from the hot liquid, but they do little to help keep your coffee hot. Not only that, but if you buy a cup of coffee at least once a day, the amount of cardboard sleeves you contribute to landfills each year is sizable. Leave those cardboard sleeves at the coffee shop, and use your own homemade insulated sleeve instead. Your homemade sleeve will protect your hand from the hot coffee, help keep the coffee hot and easily store in your purse or briefcase for daily use.
Instructions
1. Separate the ends of the cardboard coffee sleeve. Lay the sleeve flat on card stock. Trace around the sleeve adding a 1/2 inch all the way around. Cut out the sleeve template from the card stock with scissors.
2. Trace the sleeve template twice on the wrong side of your fat quarter of fabric and once on the insulated batting. Cut out the three pieces.
3. Pinch a plain hair elastic in the center. Sew back and forth across the center of the elastic with a zig zag stitch. Cut the hair elastic to one side of the seam. This creates an elastic loop that will loop around a button to hold the sleeve around your cup. Place one of the fabric pieces face up on your work surface. Place the looped half of the hair elastic centered between the top and bottom of one of the short ends of the fabric with the stitched end of the elastic lined up with the edge. Sew back and forth over the end of the elastic loop three times with a 1/4-inch seam allowance to secure it to the fabric.
4. Place the piece of fabric with the elastic attached face up on your work surface. Place the insulated batting on top of the fabric piece. Lay the second fabric piece on top of the insulated batting face down. Sew the three pieces together along both long edges and the short edge with the elastic loop with a 1/2-inch seam allowance. Turn the sleeve right side out through the open short end.
5. Turn the raw edges of the fabric and batting in a 1/2 inch along the open short edge. Iron the folds. Sew around the sleeve with a 1/4-inch seam allowance.
6. Lay a button on the sleeve centered between the top and bottom edge an inch in from the short end that doesn't have the elastic loop. Push the needle and thread through from the back side of the coffee sleeve to the front through one of the holes in the button. Push the needle and thread through the other button hole front to back. Slide a toothpick between the two button holes under the thread. Repeat the stitches four more times. Push the needle through to the front side of the fabric under the button. Wrap the thread around the thread of the stitches three times. Push the needle back to the back of the sleeve, and knot it. Trim the thread.
7. Lay the sleeve on your work surface with the button facing up. Place the letter stencil over the center of the coffee sleeve. Pour some fabric paint onto a paper plate. Dab your stencil brush in the paint, and dab the brush on an empty space on the place to remove excess paint. Dab the brush over the letter stencil to add the monogram to the sleeve. Let the paint dry overnight.
Tags: coffee sleeve, elastic loop, Push needle, your work surface, around sleeve, cardboard sleeves
