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Wednesday, March 10, 2010

St. Patty's Day Clover Cozies tutorial!!

 What do they say, everyone's Irish on St. Patty's Day? My favorite sentiment from the holiday celebrating everything Irish was probably not the first thought the revelers had on their original parade through New York City in 1762. Over the years St. Patrick's Day in the U.S. has morphed from a stoic celebration showing the strength of Irish immigrants, into cheery leprechauns, lucky rainbows, green rivers and downing a few brews. Though the sentiment has changed, one thing remains the same: it's a blast to celebrate our Irish heritage (whether or not you actually have any) each year on March 17.

To make sure we're all prepared, I've whipped up a little tutorial to keep the Irish spirit ringing. A clover bracelet that turns into drink cozy when necessary shows the right mix of spirit and spunk for this lucky day. Check it out after the break.

Clover Cozy/Bracelet Tutorial
Tools: Felt acrylic squares in light and dark green, scissors, thread, needle, drinking cup, printer, beads (optional)
Step 1:
Download (right-click on the image and save to your computer) and print the pattern above. It should come out to about 11" in length and 5" in height.  If it does not, enlarge on a copier to correct size.

For Version 1:
Cut out the entire pattern 1 from the light green felt (felt is perfect for this project because it won't fray). Place the cutout over a piece of dark green felt. Stitch the two layers together with a running stitch along the edges outlining the clovers using a dark green thread. This quilting process gives definition and doubles the strength of your bracelet cozy. Once completely stitched together cut out the dark layer of felt to match the light layer. Now wrap the cozy around a cup (either a coffee cup or pint glass) and pin and stitch it together.

For Version 2:
Cut out just one clover from the pattern 1. Use this as a template to cut out six separate clovers. Lay your six clovers out using pattern 1 as a guide. Hot glue or stitch the clovers together at the overlapped areas in the pattern. Wrap the entire piece around a cup (coffee cup or pint glass) and glue or stitch together.

For Version 3:
Cut out pattern 2 from the dark green felt. Wrap the felt around a cup (coffee cup or pint glass) and pin and stitch together. Now cut out 3 dark green single clovers and 3 light green single clovers. Layer a light green clover on top of a dark green clover. Stitch the three layered clovers through their centers and attach them to the base cozy. To embellish stitch green beads into the clover's centers.

Now, call forth spring (and avoid pinches) by donning your green-ware. And afterwards celebrate St. Patty's Day the best way with a clover-wrapped Guinness and an Irish smile!

Originally published here by the Capital City Weekly . . .

3 comments:

  1. This is a really cute and clever idea. I've shared it on Twitter. But ummmmmm I think you have a typo. St. Paddy's Day is March 17 not 14 :)

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  2. Ack! Thank you so much Cyn!! I do not know what happened there- thanks for the tweet!

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  3. AWW! This is so, so cute! I love it! Thanks so much, I'll be linking.

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