Coffee Cup Cuff Tutorial

Off the cuff, that seems to be how my days are going lately, lots of fun, limited focus.

This weekend found me playing with scraps and bits and making coffee cup cuffs for an upcoming guild project.  A perfect project to get me through my limited sessions with the sewing machine and have something finished in the end.

The supplies

I used the Fast2Fuse double sided stiff interfacing as my batting, and a template from a cuff that I know works.  Trace around the template with a sharpie-its what I had closest to me.  I then cut the interfacing into sections with about 3 or 4 cuffs in a section.  This is easier to handle in the machine.

Lay strips of fabric, overlapping a bit, to cover unmarked side of the interfacing.  I found it best to run the strips from top to bottom. (when laying them side to side, it's easy to get slivers of fabric when you cut them apart later)

Ever-so-lightly fuse in place.  It would probably be wise to have a piece of parchment paper or a silicone sheet under the piece to prevent fusing to your ironing board, I was living dangerously.  Then take it to your machine and quilt it, have fun, doodle or play with your fancy stitches.

Now check and make sure that all strips overlap.  Oops.

That is an opportunity to embellish.  Simply topstitch another strip over the exposed interfacing.

I was also making a blue set with strips of the frayed edges of the fabrics, and had another oops.

I absolutely love the patch on this one!  It is an old ad transferred onto fabric.

Following the template lines on the back, cut the cuffs apart.  Lay the cuffs on the wrong side of the fabric that you want to line them with, slightly spacing them apart.

Press with a hot iron, from the top.  It takes a bit for the heat to get through the thickness to the back, be patient and careful not to scorch the fabrics.  Once the fabric has begun to stick, flip it over and press from the lining fabric side.  

Cut cuffs apart along the edge of interfacing. (I tried leaving a slight edge, so that when I zig zagged the edges it would fold over to cover the interfacing, this was not always successful)  Now is a great time to add additional scraps or fussy cut pieces to help make the cuffs unique. The top stitching helps to anchor the lining fabric to the interfacing, too. 

Next step is to zig zag the edges.  I use various width and length of stitches and go around twice instead of using a satin stitch, just my thing.  You can play around with having a different color of thread in your bobbin as well.  

To close the cuff, I used 5/8" hook and loop strips, cutting and sewing a length onto each of the ends of the cup, where the template piece overlapped.  Make sure that you sew one to the top and its mate to the lining. :)

Wa-La, ready for coffee!

Hope that you can have a little fun with this tutorial.  My mind is already going crazy with more ideas, wouldn't a cuff made out of selvages be great?  Enjoy, and let me know if you try it!!

 

 

 

Comments

[Tonya Littmann]

sooo cute! thanks for sharing.