Well, it’s only 6:30pm on Friday and I have the pattern done! woot! Sorry about last week, it won’t happen again… well, no promises, but I will try my best.
Anyway, this week’s pattern is a nice little tea bag that you can reuse. I just love tea…. love it. But I’m not too fond of tea bags. They just seem so wasteful to me. Unfortunately, as on the go as I am, they are sometimes the best option for my travel mug. A solution was needed and these little reusable cloth tea bags were the perfect answer to my problem.
Here is a recipe for a good cup of tea:
Use 1 Tsp of tea per 6oz of water.
Bring water to boil. Then cool to 175 degrees.
Pour water over leaves. Steep for 3 mins.
Remove tea bag and enjoy!
Have a crafty week! See you next time!
Edited in: I’ve been asked several times this week “well how do wash these little guys?” so I figured it would be best just to answer everyone here. There are two different ways. If you have the time, or two of them, hang them to dry. When they are dry, just turn them inside out over the compost, trash, or disposal and all the tea leaves will come out no problem. You may wish to then hand wash with a little warm water once you have all the tea leaves out. The second way is if you are in a hurry or don’t have a place to hang them where they drip to their hearts content. It’s basically the same way: just turn inside out over the compost, trash, or disposal and then rinse with warm water to get the remaining leaves off.
I hope that helps! And thanks everyone for you super nice comments and all your questions!
Oh my gosh, what a cute lil idea!!
Will you make me one and I can buy it from your etsy store???
Thank you so much! I’m so glad to hear that you like it. And of course I will make you one! I’ll e-mail you about it and we can work out the details.
just discovered your blog today & it’s terrific. your profile sums up how i describe myself: an old lady trapped in a 20 something’s body! LOL
You know what you should make… it’s a version of your catnip pillow but for humans. Make a pillow stuffed with jasmine rice, or other rices. Make in different sizes. People can then microwave them and put them on their bodies – works great for headaches, stomach cramps, back aches… this could just be me, but I use a much smaller one for my head than my stomach – it’s perfect for when I have menstrual cramps.
I swear I was made for another era! You know, I have actually made “catnip pillows” for my mom and dad, but filled with lavender. The scent is really soothing. The ones for my mom are actually smaller and fit in her gloves to keep her hands warm when she takes the dog on a walk and the one for my dad is longer and lays on his neck. It does work great, thank you so much for bring it up, I would have never thought to mention other uses for it!
how do you wash them between usings? I’m super-excited to make some, just have to find loose muslin!
(I’m 32 but I’ve been called a grandma for years – although now that other people knit, not so much!)
You’re brilliant!
I LOVE this idea! You sell them in an Etsy store? I’ll have to take a look. Thanks for sharing this ‘coz both my DH & I believe in recycling.
Awesomebegawesome!
I think these are adorable. I smiled when I saw the comments about being old in a young body because of two things. 1- I myself have often said that I should have been born in the 40’s or even 30’s because I’m so old fashioned in a lot of ways. 2- My high school choir teacher (only 8 yrs older than me) called me an old grandma when he saw my embroidery and crochet that I took with me to all state choir for entertainment.
I used your idea and ran with it! I love these little doohickeys. Course, I haven’t used them yet, but I’m excited to. I posted pictures on my blog and they turned out to be really attractive.
This is so wonderful and yet so simple. Something I’ve wondered how to do for years, but just didn’t think it through. Those little ‘tea balls’ you can buy don’t do the best when you have fine tea leaves. Thanks a million.
You can also use these for stuffing herbs and spices into and then dropping into a soup or stew pot… would make for easy removal of bay leaves, rosemary stems, parsley… yadda yadda.
Love this Idea! Thanks for sharing the pattern. I will make these for friends who love tea. They would work well for holding seasoning herbs too. Yeah, now I have a use for all of my small scraps of muslin or other light colored loosely-woven fabrics.
What a great idea, it sure beats the powdered bought tea bags. I could use the metal tea balls but the metalic taste ruins the taste of the tea. Thanks again.
I was just toying around with the idea of making tea bags as wedding favors, and found your page when I ran a search on it. I might be crazy, but I don’t think it’ll be too hard to make 200 of these if I set it up an assembly line. Now I just have to decide what kind of tea to use. . .
thanks so much! now i understand so much better in skool! i never understood tea bags and sewing but now its so much easier! ur so fantastic!!!! thank you thank you thank you thank you!!! mwah mwah! bye!
Thank you so much! It is so funny to read all of these comments. I’m only 18 but I always feel so old, I like to make everything.
I’m attempting to make these with different varieties of teas for a friends graduation present.. Does anybody have a good recipe for a cookie maybe that would go well with teas?
I have chai, earl grey, orange cranberry and english breakfast..?
Thanks !!
Not sure how to go about getting the muslin material that’s loosely-knit enough to have a good osmosis. I’d consider buying if you have on Etsy.
It’s pretty much the cheapest you can find on the rack, it’s not super open, but it’s good enough to steep. A double layer of cheese cloth would work well too. I actually have sets on sale in the shop: https://craftleftovers.com/shop/product.php?productid=20&cat=4&page=1 You can get them in sets of 2 small, 2 large, or one of each.
What a great idea. I have some plain unbleached muslin that would work well.
Sorry, but i have to ask… Does the tea taste at all like wet clothes? I love the idea and your tutorial is great, but I can’t help wondering… :)
Haha, your comment totally made me laugh out loud. Completely valid question. I think the “wet clothes” taste would only be there if you washed them in the washer with detergent. To clean these little guys out, you can just turn them inside out over the compost bin, rinse them off under hot running water, and then let them drip dry.