Hot Water Bottles are so Yummy!

For many of us, winter rages on. We had snow yet again this morning. I thought I'd share the hot water bottle cozy I made a little while ago. The cozy slips on and off with a simple pillowcase-type closure in the back. There aren't any buttons or anything, just fabric from the top of the cozy laying over fabric from the bottom. To change the water you just slip your hand in and pull the bottle out a little. 

I used some leftover luxurious felt that my mother had in a drawer in the attic for the main cover. It's a lovely dark grey color and is a substantial but pliable wool. For the circles I used some lightweight wool felt I had purchased in tiny swatch sizes a couple of years ago. 

It was kind of daring of me to use contrasting thread to sew on the circles, since you can see every stitch that way. Sewing the little spiral on the littlest piece of felt was not easy. But the wobbles are whimsical and cute.  

Here is the cozy with a little friend, a gnome doll I made from my daughter's teacher's pattern. That was mostly hand sewn from flannel scraps, and I stuffed it with wool roving that I purchased from another Etsy seller. I hadn't intended for the two of them to match, but they look really sweet together! 

I bought a new hot water bottle for this project. I find that the heat it puts out is very soothing, nicer feeling than a heating pad, and safer, too. We keep our house pretty cold because we like to conserve energy as much as possible (our big kids will tell you it's because we're crazy and we like to torture them), so getting into bed with a hot water bottle is kind of a necessity for me. It's also lovely for healing small tummyaches and for snuggling with on the couch under a comforter. I'm off to sew up some new snack bags with my serger now!