Let's Make Tea...A Tea Bag Craft To Make And Share With The Tea Lover In Your Life. A Craft By Karen Mom of Three

Today I thought it might be nice to share an easy sewing craft that is tea related that you may wish to make and give to the tea lover in your life.

 I have been making and gifting reusable tea bags for a few years now and I wanted to share this tutorial with you and inspire you to make and share them. If you are not a tea drinker but just a Cozy Mystery Lover, these make great bookmarks as well!

 To make your own you will need:

-Fabric ( I use organic un dyed cotton but you can use a print cotton just wash your fabric first)
-A Sewing Needle with a large "Eye"
-Cotton Crochet Yarn I use Red Heart Yarn
-Paper
-Ruler
-Pencil
-Scissors
-Sewing Machine
-Tread (I use Coats & Clark) 
-Pins
-Iron and Ironing board
-*Charms (I buy mine on Etsy)

 Step one- Assemble all your supplies, plug in your sewing machine in, your iron and set up your ironing board.
Step 2- Use your ruler to measure a rectangle on your paper that is 2.5 inches wide by 4 inches long. Cut out your pattern and place it a side.
Step 3- Iron  your fabric and fold it over so that one edge is 2.5 inches over the fabric. Place your pattern on the fold of the fabric and cut out. If you unfold your fabric your rectangle will now measure 5 inches by 4 inches.

Step 4- Fold over the long edge of your rectangle and pin it at 1/2 inch as I have in the photo above. If you are not a fan of pins you can iron this edge. This will be the casing for the crochet yarn.

Step 5- Zig Zag Stitch the casing along the raw edge you have folded and pined into place.

Step 6- Tread your needle with your crochet thread and feed it through the casing you have created. So that I avoid the frayed edges I actually sew through my ends as shown in the photo above leaving 1/2 an inch so that when I sew the bag closed the draw strings will not be in the way. You can do yours regularly through the casing or as I have. When you sew closed your bag only sew up to the casing so that the strings will work to open and close your bag.
Step 7- Fold your tea bags with what will be the outside of your tea bag also known as the right side, so that the raw edges are on the outside. Sew closed your bags along the two open edges away from the casing.
Step 8- Turn them inside out and check that they open and close easily. Now they are ready for a great loose leaf tea!

Step 9- Attach small charms to your draw string ends by knotting them into place. Repeat steps 1-9 to create wonderful tea bag gifts or as a set of your own.

To Use:
Simply add 1 tsp of loose leaf tea to your tea bag. (2-3 if you are making a pot)

 Close the draw string bag place it in your cup or pot and pour your hot water over it, allow it to steep.

 

When you have steeped the tea to your liking, simply remove the bag. Allow it to dry and then open the bag and remove the used tea leaves. Rinse your tea bag and let it air dry and it is ready for your next pot of tea.

These are easy and fun to make and I hope you enjoyed this tea craft. Now that I am done writing I am off to read! 

As with all my posts I would love to hear from you so please leave me a comment here or email me at karenmowen@gmail.com