Embroidered Coffee Cup Cozy

Warm up on a cold winter day with a nice hot mug of coffee, tea, or hot chocolate. This reusable fabric coffee cup cozy will insulate your cup -- and dress it up at the same time!

Read below for these free project instructions.

To begin, measure the height of the coffee mug from the bottom edge to the top rim (ours is 3 3/4 inches high).

Next, measure around the mug (the circumference - ours is 10 1/4 inches wide). Take that measurement and add one inch (our final measurement is 11 1/4 inches wide).

Draw a rectangle on the cotton fabric using your dimensions. Leave a few inches of excess fabric around the shape.

Create a paper template of the design by printing it at full size using embroidery software. If you don't have embroidery software, you can cut a piece of paper the shape and dimensions of the design to help with placement and centering.

Center the template by measuring the height of the rectangle and dividing by two. Measure the width and divide by two. Make sure there is at least one inch of space between the edges of the design and the edges of the shape. Using an air-erase or dress makers pencil, pen poke a hole in the center of the template and mark the fabric. Mark the horizontal and vertical axis points as well.

Remove the template and draw lines connecting the axis points - these lines will be used for hooping.

Spray a piece of medium-weight cutaway stabilizer with spray adhesive and smooth the fabric on top. Hoop the fabric and stabilizer together by aligning the marks on the hoop with the lines on the fabric. Attach the hoop to the machine and load the design. Move the hoop so that the needle is directly over the center point on the fabric. Embroider the design.

After the design has finished, trim away the excess stabilizer on the backside of the embroidery.

Cut out the shape.

Cut one piece of cotton fabric (for the back) by pinning the embroidered front piece over the fabric and then cutting out the shape. You will also do this to cut a piece of cotton batting. Layer the pieces together with the batting first, the back piece aligned over the batting second (right side facing up), and the embroidered front piece aligned on top of the back piece (wrong side facing up). Pin in place and sew a 1/2 inch seam around one short end, the top, and the bottom edges - leave one short end open for turning.

Turn the cozy right side out. Turn the open end in 1/2 inch and press. Also, press the side seams. Cut two strips of elastic ribbon or cord to 5 inches long. Then, form the strips into loops and insert them inside the open end of the cozy about 3/4 inch from each corner. Pin in place and sew a 1/4 inch seam around the entire outside edge of the cozy. Stitch over the ribbons/cords a few times to secure them in place. You may need to use a zigzag stitch to properly secure the loops.

Add the buttons on the front side of the cozy on the opposite end of the loops about 3/4 inch in from the top and bottom edges.

Your coffee cup cozy is complete! Wrap the cozy around the mug and then wrap the loops around the buttons to secure it in place.