A Homemade Mother's Day

What a cute little box! What could be inside? Is it a lunch box?
No, it's a Mother's Day gift for my mom, who loves her cup of tea DAILY. :)

I knew I wanted to make her a handmade gift since she knows how much I have been sewing lately, and I didn't want to do something that she has already received as a homemade gift from one of her other daughters. The handmade items - scented tea coasters and a personalized coffee cozy. All items are lined with Insul-Bright, so they can be used with hot drinks.

I used a modified version of this tutorial for the coasters. I liked the idea of making the coasters washable, but I didn't want bias tape all around the coaster. So, I cut the back in half and used bias tape for the back split, but I sewed the front and back pieces right sides together instead of adding the bias tape all around.

I also sort of quilted the top. I fussy cut some fabric, added binding, and stitched along the lines of the fabric. I tried out different decorative stitches to make each coaster unique.

The spice insert is removeable, as shown in the above picture.


I followed this tutorial to make the coffee cozy, as my mom also enjoys a trip to a coffee shop occasionally. This was my first experience embroidering by hand. It was not hard to do, and I got into a rythm at the end. I used Steam-A-Seam to connect the pieces instead of Wondertape (I could not find Wondertape at the fabric store). I think if I make this again, I may add velcro instead to make it more adjustable. I told my mom that she'd have to let me know what she thought of it not being adjustable.

I enjoyed putting this together think it was a well received gift.