Turtle Tea Cosy

Tea Cosy

The base tea cosy is worked in star stitch:

Beginning star

ch 3, draw up loops through 2nd ch, 1st ch, dc from previous round and centre of last star (5 loops on hook).  YO and draw through all 5 loops.

Star Stitch

Draw up loops through centre of previous star, the same stitch as the last loop of previous star, the top of the star from the previous round and the centre of the star from the previous round (5 loops on hook).  YO and draw through all 5 loops. (There are several tutorials on how to work star stitch available if you google it)

r1  Foundation sc in multiples of 2 + 1 until length is about 1/3 longer than the width of one side of the tea pot at the widest part (About half way up, between the the points where the spout and the handle start).  The fabric won't settle into the proper size until about 3 rows of star stitch have been worked.  It might take a bit of trial and error to make sure the piece is the right size.

r2  ch3, draw up loops through 2nd ch, 1st ch, sc at base of chain, next two sc (5 loops on hook).  YO, draw through all 5 loops.  *draw up loops through centre of last star, the sc of the final loop of the previous star, next two sc (5 loops on hook).  YO and draw through all 5 loops.*  Repeat between * * til the end of the round.  Dc in final sc.

r3  Beginning star, then star stitch until the end of the round.  Dc in the top of the last star of the previous round.

Repeat r3 until the piece reaches the top of the spout.  Fasten off.

Make a second piece of the same size, but instead of fasting off, do another row and continue the row over the top of the first piece (make sure the stitching is going the right way!).  I joined the two by making a star stitch with a couple of extra loops over the two dc at the ends of the pieces.

Continue repeating r3 until the piece reaches the top of the handle.  Join the two ends together with a sl st.  You can either continue making a dc at the end of each row, or change the dc to another star stitch.

Continue working the star stitch rows in a round until the tea pot begins to get smaller at the top.  Measure the height of the remaining tea pot, and measure how many rows this height equates to.  Divide the number of rows into the number of stitches.  This is the number of stitches you need to decrease in each row (e.g., if there are 6 rows and 36 stitches, you'll need to decrease by 6 stitches each row).  The way I work a dec in star stitch is, instead of drawing up the 4th loop through the top of the star stitch from the previous round, draw it through the centre of that star then draw the final loop through the centre of the next star.

Space the dec evenly throughout the the row (i.e., for 6 dec in 36 stitches, dec every 5th stitch).   When there are only a handful of stitches remaining, fasten off.  You can either sew the hole closed, or leave the hole open and pop the top of the lid through it (see the above pictures).

Sew the bottom together at the sides, sewing up to the base of the handle and spout respectively.

Turtles

Head

r1  ch2, sc in 1st ch, draw up a loop through 1st ch, ch1 in first loop on hook, yo and draw through both loops

r2  ch1, 2 sc

r3  ch1, 2 sc

r4  inc x 2

r5  ch1, 4 sc

r6  ch1, 4 sc

r7  ch1, dec x 2

r8  dec, fasten off and tuck in thread

Flippers (make 4)

r1  ch2, sc in 1st ch, draw up a loop through 1st ch, ch1 in first loop on hook, yo and draw through both loops

r2  ch1, 2 sc

r3  ch1, 2 sc

r4  ch1, 2 sc.  Fasten off and tuck in beginning thread

Tail

r1  ch2, sc in first chain

r2  ch1, sc

r3  ch1, sc

r4  ch1, sc.  Fasten off and tuck in beginning thread

Shell (Make 7)

r1  6sc in magic circle

r2  2sc in each stitch.  sl st in 1st st.  Clean fasten off (Cut thread, pull loop through last st, thread the end through the next st around (2nd st).  Thread the end back through the last st of round.)

Putting it Together

Sew 6 of the shell pieces around the 7th by sewing 3sc of each piece into 3sc of the central piece (the 3rd sc will need to be shared with the next piece).  Sew the 6 pieces together by 5 adjoining sc.  Sc around the base of the shell (there should be 2sc left from each shell piece, plus do a sc in the last sc that makes up the join between adjacent shells (4 sc per shell)).  Attach the other pieces to the shell by sewing one per shell piece in this order:  Head, two flippers, tail, the other two flippers.

Attach the turtles to the tea cosy by first sewing on the shell (add a little bit of stuffing to hold the shape), then sewing around each of the limbs.