Rule Britannia: A Union Jack Tea Cozy

I have been a little obsessed with the use of the British flag as a design element for a while now.  I even have a Pinterest board dedicated to all the ways you can apply it to furnishings, clothing, tea sets etc.  I am particularly fond of the ways other color schemes are substituted for the official red, white and blue.

Apparently these ideas have been cooking in the back of my head for a while.  Because when an Anglophile friend’s birthday rolled around. I had a couple of ideas of perfect gifts for her.

I thought a proper British tea cozy with a Union Jack design would be a fun and useful gift.  In my stash, I discovered a fabric with famous sites in London.  I fell in love with it when I saw it last summer, but didn't know what I might use it for.  It was meant to be.  I also came up with a navy fabric with tiny hearts on it—after all this is about loving England.  That fabric joined the stash some time in the late 1980s, I think.  Does that make it vintage?

I chose some flat cotton lace that seemed perfect for the white stripes in the flag and a simple tiny red rick rack completed the flag.  For the lining, I picked a heavy red striped cotton pillow ticking. It pays to have a good stash when inspiration hits.

Can you identify these London scenes? (Double decker bus doesn't count!)

So here is the completed cozy. I tried to feature different scenes in the London fabric on each side of it.  The pot should stay quite hot since I layered in cotton batting and an insulated one between the lining and the outer fabrics.  Just in case the handle gets too hot under the cozy, I included a small potholder which I rolled up and placed in the loop at the top. (The loop is very helpful for pulling the cozy off the teapot.)

Here is one side of the cozy showing the London scenes side of the potholder.

London scenes, lace and love

This is the reverse of the cozy and the potholder.  

I quilted a heart in the potholder which uses the same ticking that lines the cozy.

I think this came out well and have ideas about other fabric combinations that would be fun to do.  Because I am still obsessed with that flag. But next time, I am changing up the color scheme.