Unsewing

Such a cute term for something that is a complete pain in the neck!

Last fall (or was it last summer?) a good friend of mine asked me to make a tea cozy. Now, for those of you who are at all familiar with my crafting, the most 3-dimensional I tend to get is a tote bag or the occasional A-line skirt and PJ pants, but it's been ages since I've had to draft my own pattern for something that needs to fit a 3-D object. And that showed when I finished their "tea cozy"!

Even finishing the inside seams with bias tape...

When I got it anywhere near an actual tea pot, however, there was nothing "cozy" about this item!! I learned that rounding up the measurements I had taken went a little far and had made something more akin to a toaster cozy, something no one in their right mind would actually use (or I would hope at least would unplug the appliance first). So of course this would not work for the intended recipients.

But I thought I would try anyway and covertly brought it to their house to throw over their tea pot. Sure enough it took up half the counter top instead. Whoops. 

Now all of those lovely finished seams and bias tape have been methodically removed and un-seamed. The unsewing.

I'm still a little gun shy about actually cutting this puppy down. Silly, I know. Especially since this started out as a birthday present request which was graciously adapted to be a Christmas present, and now... well he'll have another birthday this year, so perhaps we're back to the birthday present! Does anyone have any tips on slicing and dicing something that's already quilted in order to make it the right size?? If I figure out a good method that works for this I'll be sure to share. But in the mean time I think I'm going back to working with 2 dimensional pieces - sticking with what I know best!