Coffee Cozy:
An eco-friendly gift for the coffee lover in your life.
(Hint: Your Dad!)

Yes, my friends, making this coffee cozy is just another way you can give new life to an old sweater. Simply felt up the sweater, cut off the cuffs, add some felt art and you're done!

This cozy is eco-friendly on many different levels because we are a) re-using an old material b) creating less waste by not using a paper sleeve c) using eco-friendly felt and d) reducing our carbon foot print because we have done a, b and c.

This homemade gift idea would be perfect for any coffee lover or tree-hugger on your list. It's easy to personalize, so get out there and find a sweater!

Materials Needed

- an old sweater with ribbed cuffs, felted
- eco-friendly felt (made from recycled plastic bottles)
- pencil
- needle
- DMC floss

Coffee Cozy: Finding the Sweaters

Search your local thrift stores for wool sweaters. Look at the tags and only buy sweaters that are made from 80% or more wool.

Look for sweaters that have a ribbed cuff as this will make a very stretchy coffee cozy that will fit a variety of different cup sizes. Use only adult sized sweaters for this project - the cuffs on children's sweaters may shrink too much when they are felted and you will have a cozy that is good-for-nothing.

Coffee Cozy: Felting the Sweaters

To be technical, we are actually fulling the sweater, but since everyone these days calls it felting, so shall we.

Place 2 or 3 sweaters in the washing machine. If you only have one sweater to felt, throw in a couple pairs of jeans as well so that the sweater has something to rub against...you need lots of friction for felting.

Machine wash the sweater in hot water and let it agitate...I found agitating the sweater for 15 minutes gave the desired effect. Let the washing machine spin out the water and remove the sweater before the rinse cycle begins.

You can then either lay the sweater flat to dry, or you can put it in the dryer. The sweater will continue to felt up in the dryer, so if you don't want anymore felting, it's best to let it air dry.

Coffee Cozy: The Humble How-To

1. Once your sweater is dry, cut off the cuffs so that you are left with a tube of knitting.

2. Think of the kind of image you want on your cozy. Then draw and cut out your pieces from your felt.

Here are some suggestions: A retro-looking spaceship, a flower, a coffee cup, a monogram of the person you are giving the cup to, an object the person is interested in (like a guitar, car, ball of yarn and knitting needles).

3. (optional) Cut out rectangular backgrounds for your felt object. You don't have to do this, but I found that this framed my coffee cup nicely. When I didn't have the background pieces, it just looked as though my coffee cup was 'floating' on the cozy.

4. Stitch everything together with three strands of DMC floss and a needle.

5. Buy a cup of coffee and enjoy...no wait, you're supposed to give it away to someone on your list! Include a gift certificate to a coffee shop or a bag of coffee beans with your homemade gift...and make yourself your own cozy with the other cuff.

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