A quick handmade Christmas present: bowl cosies
I had this big idea of creating a step-by-step tutorial for this post, but the flu is doing its rounds and I just didn’t have the energy. Sorry! Here’s an abridged version.
A few months ago, I went to a friend’s flat and she warmed up some food for me in microwave at dinnertime. She used a weird sort of mitten that she placed under the bowl, so that when we took the hot food out, we’d grab onto the fabric and not burn our hands.
Mind. Blown.
This thing was, she said, called a bowl cosy and I immediately wanted to make a dozen and hand them out.
These cosies are super easy to make, especially if you batch-sew them. They’re also great to use up scraps of fabric (some of mine were made with patchwork bits).
How to make a bowl cosy
- Cut two 10″x 10″ (25cm x 25cm) squares. Fabric must be 100% cotton or other natural fibre.
- Cut two 100% cotton/wool batting squares, slightly smaller than the fabric ones. I made mine ½” (1.25 cm) smaller all around.
- Sew the fabric and batting together by making an X (see images above).
- Sew darts as shown below, towards the wrong side of the fabric.
- Sew the now two bowl-shaped squares of fabric, right sides together, leaving an opening for turning.
- Once sewn and turned, press and topstitch.
- Tah-dah!
- Make sure all fabrics are 100% natural, so they don’t melt in the microwave. I used nylon thread without issues but you might want to use cotton thread to be on the safe side.
I found a great illustrated tutorial by Lovely and Enough here.
These make great handmade stocking fillers and show you care about your loved ones not getting scalded hands. Nifty. You can even use themed fabrics to suit their preferences.
That’s it. I hope you found this idea useful, if you do, let me know in the comments or tag me on Instagram @eleanor.shadow 🙂
Happy sewing, happy holidays, and see you next year 🙂
1.11) A map of the edge of Ontario, between Ottawa and Oakville, to give you perspective of where we are going today
1.12) Some of the landmarks I could see
1.2) This is a nice office, I don’t want to be underfoot, and the lighting is better over by the window.
1.3) Settling into a corner under the stairs.
1.4) There were some iconic buildings in my view. The Hudsons Bay building, a church(out of shot to the left) and what I finally figured out was old Toronto city hall and New City Hall.
1.5) a shell of a building? 4 massive turbines stick out of the middle of what remains of the stone building.
2.1) Diagram of wool density around a joint
2.2) working on the muscles of the forearms (the extensor group)
2.3) working on the posterior aspect of the upper arm just above the elbow joint
2.4-2.5) working around the thumb
2.6) Mer resting and having a break in his project box (needle in lat border of the palm).
3.1-3.2) watching roofers lay out plastic on top of the black layer, and wondering if the area with rock is finished or yet to be worked on. Using the zoom, I figured out that the gravel is the top layer.
3.3) Storm clouds and reflections in the glass tower before me.
3.4) The landscape reflected in the glass with a sunbeam piercing the clouds, highlighting a stretch of trees and houses.
3.5-3.6) It was particularly striking with the blue sky reflecting in the glass and the storm rushing in behind the building.
3.7) The storm rushed past, determined to dump water somewhere else since the sky cleared and the reflections of clouds were fabulous
4.1- old city hall disappearing into the new building surrounding it
4.2- just peeking over the building, the fabulous fenestration and detailing are just visible, 
4.3- Gargoyles!! Oh, the dentils in the roof and repeated under the gargoyle’s ledge! What is that pattern just under the clock? If only I could get closer…
4.5- Oh yes, I can get closer! 
4.6)- more patterning on this gable end, the sun with swords, circles with a bar and plain weave?
4.7-In the late afternoon, the sun came out, giving this raking light, creating depth and accentuating the details
4.81- As the sun swung further around and pierced between buildings, it finally struck the glass neighbour of old city hall. Bathing the old building in reflected light and shadow patterns from its towering neighbour.
4.82) Sunset is approaching, and the reflections off the glass tower onto the stone and copper roof are intriguing but almost lost amongst the urban landscape. 
5.1)The young Mer showing the progress on his hands 
5.2) Hands can be a suggestion, or you can spend a long time adding knuckles and surface detail (ask Google to show you surface anatomy, and you should find diagrams of the superficial features)
6.1) Another sunbeam strikes the landscape reflection in the building across from me
6.2) The reflections and cast light were getting interesting!
5.1) The first time through, a lot of games are already gone! I hope I can find the alpaca and lama games!! How many gamers in front of me are Fibre People?
5.2) First round of shopping, I got both the lama and the Alpaca games!!! Plus 2 that had tempting descriptions, and the boxes looked interesting.
5.3) A quick look around, and there are still shoppers downstairs.
5.4)A game about Rome, lots of buildings and monuments
6.1 )Saturday Morning, after the first round of game shopping.
6.2)pins used for spacing
6.3)working on the first cone link-shaped bump
6.4) At 11 am, the second go through with reduced prices on most of the games started.
6.5) I found a few more games that looked interesting, but most had no fibre theme.
6.6) Steampunk airships battle over a landscape of hexes.
6.7)the smaller closer closer-spaced scutes
6.8) Scutes are blocked in
7.1) Turning to the human parts, let’s firm up and define muscles 
7.2) building up the definition of muscles and firming up the wool in the forearm 
7.3) Glenn and the Mer in progress, both looked quite pleased with the weekend so far! (and it’s only Saturday!)
1.1) little table and felting supplies for the next 2 days
1.2) The temporarily empty 2 tables directly in front of me will be filled with Playtesting and new game demos’
2.1) I consulted with the young Mer about his fishy-part’s colours. It’s a bit early to start adding the top layer, but I am putting off deciding how to approach the Scutes and Denticles.
2.2) Part of the braid undone so you can see the colour variations.
2.3) Adding the Dorsal fin, it has a “V” notch on the back part of the fin and is thicker at the leading edge.
2.4) starting the Heterocercal and Caudal tail fin
2.5) There is a thicker area along the top edge of the heteroceral tail fin
2.6) I am not sure which game this was, but all the odd playing pieces caught my attention.
2.7-2.8) the tail, Pelvic, and Anal fins have been blocked in, but the shape is not correct yet.
3.1) fins that are part of the main armature, Pectoral and Heterocercal tail and caudal fin
3.2) single wire insertion to create a secure Dorsal fin. (More fibre will be added to the core wool after the wire has been added.)
3.3- 3.4) Pelvic fins are a pair of fins on the underside of the fish before the single anal fin.
3.5 ) using the fake clover punch tool to flatten the fins at his hips.
4.1) previewing the room full of games for sale.
1.1-1.2) 05-2025 Cangames (you can see what happens if you get distracted winding fingers…I fixed that too.)
1.3) 06-04-2025 Mer-boyfriend trying to get me to rush his felting
1.4) 06-15-2025 Blacksmithing weekend and felting the mer-boyfriend
1.5) 07-14-2025 Social
1.6) 08-08-2025 Friday Twist shop and demo
2.1) Diagram of superficial felting with a less felted core.
2.2) Diagram inserting the needle deeper to affect the under layer 
3.1) 10-05-2025 Slipper workshop (I think the wetness was too much for him?)
4.1-4.3) 01-19-2022 Mr. Mer’s Fishy parts, augmenting armature after felting is well underway. (Insertion of Harrington rods in progress) fixing this far into felting becomes harder to hide the surgery, but not impossible.
5.1-5.2) The fish parts are now quite firm. I think I am almost ready to start adding the little spikes.
5.3)Some of the sturgeon reference photos I have collected, focusing on the spines/spikes.
