Appliqued Hot Water Bottle Cover

 Upcycled Wool Sweater

September's Cuddly Buddly Design Team Challenge is entitled 'Teenage Christmas' and it proved to be just the nudge I needed to start my festive stitching.  I decided to make an appliqued hot water bottle cover using a Benetton vintage cashmere sweater, which cost me just 20p 'ready felted' (shrunk!) from my local car boot sale;  

I then downloaded and resized this 'Santa Sitting' digi stamp so that his face filled the front of my cover and got stitching. 

Pure wool felt is bliss to sew with as it doesn't fray and feels super expensive.  It's also ridiculously easy to make - Simply throw a 'hand wash only' woollen jumper into your machine on a hot wash.  Heck, I've even sometimes created it by mistake!

For a complete cuteness overload, gently rouge dear old Father Christmas's cheeks with a red colouring pencil.

 The back of the case features a simple overlapping envelope closure, in the style of a pillow case.  

This was such an easy project to make but it looks looks and feels so much more expensive than the usual polyester 'knitted' covers that the shops are full of at Christmas.  I have written a simple step-by-step tutorial over at the Cuddly Buddly Blog and don't forget that 'Pound Stores' sell hot water bottles nice and cheaply should you want to make your own.

Digital stamps are perfect for applique and you could even make a matching card for a real 'Wow Factor'.  Just have a look at this stunning example;

It was made by the very talented Wendy over at Crazy4FlowersCards, her whole blog is full of fantastic creations and well worth a visit.

Happy Christmas!