quilted | Steely Seamstress

I made something very quickly yesterday. I suppose I must be used to making tricky items of clothing with convoluted instructions, so this little make really surprised me. It was done and dusted within the day.

I have this little flask that I take on cycle rides with me. I have had it for many years and it is just one of those really useful objects that I wouldn’t be without. Except there is a problem. It just doesn’t properly fit the holder on my bicycle and for ages I have just wrapped a little bubble-wrapping around the bottle so it stays tightly in the holder. Anyway, yesterday I decided enough was enough and my sewing skills came to the rescue.

I decided to make a quilted bottle cosy so that the bottle would sit in the holder better. The added advantage is that I thought that the quilting would really help insulate the bottle too keeping a cold drink cool and a hot drink warm.

I chose a couple of scraps of fabric. The outside fabric is left over from my Lander trousers. The inside, is some travel-themed fabric which I used previously to make a passport holder. The bias-binding was found in the stash. I found some batting in the stash too.

I used two fabrics (cotton lawn for inner fabric and cotton twill for the outer fabric) and batting measuring 30 cm x 30 cm. This was sufficient for my flask. However, you may wish to measure the circumference of the flask and the diameter of the base of the flask. Add these two together and add seam allowances to get a rough fabric size.

Fabric size (length and width) = Circumference of flask + Diameter of flask + 6 cm

I also used bias-binding approximately 3 cm longer than the circumference of the flask and a length of cord, which I just cut at the length I thought looked right once I had threaded it through the bias-binding.

Fold the outer fabric square in half along the diagonal. Press. Draw a line (using a fabric marker) on the fabric along the press line.
Next draw additional diagonal lines. I drew these evenly spaced by using the ruler width as a guide.
Draw additional diagonal lines at 90 degrees to the original line. These lines will create the stitching guides.
Place the inner fabric right-side down, then the batting and finally the outer fabric right-side up on the table.
Pin the fabrics together.
Next tack (baste) the fabrics together.
Sew along the stitching lines using your sewing machine.
Wrap the flask in the fabric and mark how much of the fabric is needed. I used enough to completely wrap the flask and then added 3 cms for a seam allowance (1.5 cm at each side) . Trim the fabric.
Fold the fabric in half right-sides together and stitch using 1.5 cm as the seam allowance.
Cut a circle of fabric the size of the base of the flask + 1.5 cm around the entire circumference from the remaining quilted fabric.
Pin the circle of fabric to the cylinder of fabric already created, making sure that the right side of the fabric is on the inside. Stitch.
Turn so that the right side is visible.
Fold out one side of the bias-binding and place the raw edge, with the right-side against the top edge of the inside of the cosy. Pin in place. Fold the short ends under and pin these in place too. Stitch along the fold line of the bias binding. Keep the short ends of the bias binding open as these will be the openings for the cord.
Fold the bias binding over the top edge of the cosy and pin in place on the outside of the cosy. Edge stitch this in place.
Thread a cord through the bias binding. Cut to a length that looks good and knot.

I feel a bit sad that I didn’t take pictures of the steps. So, if the instructions aren’t too clear just let me know and I will try to add some.

Note: I did not finish any of the inside seams. Ideally I would finish these with bias-binding, but the small size of the flask and the thickness of the fabric would have made this fundamentally too fiddly.