Hot water bottle cover tutorial......

Finding the hot water bottle covers yesterday reminded me of a pattern I once made to make my own covers.

Years ago I had a beautiful Alpaca wool jumper that I loved. Unfortunately it went into the washing machine by mistake and ended up shrinking to the size of a small dog jumper.

I had the brilliant idea to make a hot water bottle cover out of it. Back then I just cut a pattern around the bottle insert and made sure the cable knit pattern was in the centre down the front and used the roll neck on the jumper as the neck for the bottle.

I have no idea what happen to that cover but the following pattern is just as simple as that basic one I used so many years ago.

I have a green cable knit Ralph Lauren jumper that is so worn and faded that I can't wear it any more, so I might use that for my cover.

Happy sewing and don't forget to send me a photo of your finished product.

HOT WATER BOTTLE COVER

With basic sewing skills, you should be able to make your own hot water bottle cover. Choose a soft fabric, such as felt, flannel or fabric fleece. A third of a yard should be plenty of material for a single cover.

INSTRUCTIONS

 1-Measure the length and width of your hot water bottle. Add 1 inch to the width and 5¾ inches to the length. With a ruler, mark and cut a newspaper rectangle according to your measurements

2-Fold the fabric in half. Pin the pattern to your folded fabric and cut around it. You will have two pieces.

3-Place the fabric--- right sides together---and pin around the two longer sides and the bottom side. Sew the three sides with a ½- inch seam. Remove the pins as you sew---do not sew over them.

4-Press over ¼-inch at the top of the cover and then fold over another 4-inches and press again.

5-Pin, all the way around, close to the last fold. Sew around where you have pinned, leaving a 3-inch opening. Stitch all the way around the cover, 1 inch above the last stitching, forming a tube.
 
6-Measure around the neck of the hot water bottle and add three inches. Cut a length of ¾-inch elastic to this measurement.

7-Attach a safety pin to the end of the elastic and work it into the opening and all the way around to the opposite side, through the tube. Lap the two ends of elastic, one on top of the other, and sew across them several times for strength.

8-Push the elastic ends into the tube and hand sew the opening closed. Stretch the elastic area to get the hot water bottle inside the cover.