Bottle Cozy

I think almost anyone would love to keep their drinks as cool as when they took it out of the refrigerator.  My personal problem is that I don't like when the outside of my can or bottle is wet.  It gets all over my hand and I want to keep them dry while at work...or at play!!!  So here is my very FIRST tutorial!

TUTORIAL:

Of course, you can always find one of these:

But can I say……uuuuugly!!

So I decided to take the one I had and cover it.  I also wanted to make it a little taller so that I could fit a water bottle in it.  I wanted mine for work, so I hunted through my scrap material so it could match my walkie talkie holder at work:

Materials:

 -One rectangle of fabric 5x10 in. (Fabric is based on the length and circumference of the original cozy.  The cozy I had had a circumference of 9 in, and length of 3 in.)

-Coordinating wide ribbon by 20 in. (based on the circumference of 9 in.)

Directions:

 Step One:

Cut off the bottom so the cozy doesn’t limit the size of the bottle/can you want to use it for.

Step Two:

If you have an embroidery machine, now would be the time to put one on the rectangle of fabric.  I used an initial since I don’t want anyone to mistake my water for their qwn at work.  No sharing of germs in my clinic!

Step Three:

-Sew the rectangle together right sides facing each other  to make a cylinder.  I used a ½ in. seam allowance and a zig-zag stitch to ensure there were no problems with pulling or tearing.

-Turn original cozy inside out.  Slip cylinder over cozy with right side facing the cozy.  I have to admit, it was a bit tricky sewing the two together because the circumference was much smaller than my sewing machine arm.  I had to be careful not to catch both sides of the cozy.  I used a zig-zag stitch again to ensure that there would be no tearing.

-Turn the cozy right side out. 

Step Four:

Time to add the ribbon!

-Sew the ribbon ends together (again I had a ½ in. seam allowance). 

-Place the ribbon at the end of the fabric and stitch together.  Again, I was worried about the amount of tugging the ends were going to get so I used a zig-zag stitch.

-Fold the ribbon over and hand tack the ribbon on the inside. 

-Topstitch the top edge of the ribbon.  On this one I topstitched about ¼ in. from the edge.

-Then I added the second ribbon to the other end of the fabric in the same manner.

I realized after I finished that you could approach this step in two different ways.  After doing it the way I did, I realized that it would also work well to treat the ribbon as a bias tape also.

 And here is the final result:

Some final notes/thoughts:  I think this could definitely use a bit more work...there is definitely a gap at the inside bottom because the material isn't directly connected to the original cozy.  I might try this again and  forgo the original cozy altogether and use a different insulating fabric or I would just make the cozy shorter so the bottom could be sewn directly to the original cozy.   I forsee a lot of gifts for friends and family with their favorite team/theme with a coordinating fabric in the future!