Perk up your pad with chintzy prints and creative stitching

What you need...

• Fabric, cotton: floral; spotty, pink, two shades; co-ordinating scraps
  
• Wadding
  
• Lining
  
• Lace, cotton, 25cm
  
• Bias binding tape, 1.8m, pink
  
• Belt buckle, button, diamanté belt
  
• Iron-on-interfacing
  
• Glue, acid-free

instructions

1. Using the template provided, as a guide, cut out the following: two linings, two wadding, floral fabric front and back. Trim pink spotty fabric, 25cm x 3.5cm, and sew it along the bottom of the front piece. Cut out all the cupcake elements, then arrange as shown. Stick these down using acid-free glue, making sure all the edges are secure. Allow to dry.

2. Hand or machine stitch the detail. Repeat the process for the 'tea for two' tag. Sew a length of pink cotton lace, 25cm, along the join
   at the bottom. Press the seam, the cupcakes and tag on the reverse with a warm iron. Lay this finished front piece on top of the wadding, cut to the same size and lay that onto a piece of lining fabric, which is the wrong side up. Pin in place.

3. Machine stitch 0.5cm in from the edge all the way round. Quilt along the seam between the spotty and floral fabric, around the outside
   edges of the cupcakes and tag. Set aside. Lay the back lining the wrong side up, a piece of wadding, then your back floral piece right side up and pin in place. Machine stitch right round it, 0.5cm in from the edge, and either randomly quilt or pick out the pattern of your chosen fabric and quilt that. Set aside.

4. Cut out a piece of contrasting fabric, 55cm long x 4cm wide from the middle gusset, then a lining and piece of wadding the same size and pin together. Run a couple of lines of machine stitching down the entire length. Assemble the tea cosy by pinning all three finished pieces together with all right sides facing out. Machine again, 0.5cm in from the edges.

5. Trim around the bottom to make sure all the edges are level. Cover the raw edges with bias-binding tape, doing the rounded edges first and finishing with the bottom. Make a matching loop from the bias tape and sew in between the front and back using hand stitches to pinch it together. Add a diamanté button to finish.