Stuffing

How you stuff your tea cosy is going to make a difference to the finished look. If you don’t want it to look lumpy, bumpy, dark and dingey, read my stuffing tips.

I know in the past it was thought old tights were a good stuffing material, but maybe not the best for stuffing a knitted thing. I don't think that a knitted fabric is robust enough to contain tights. Plus, the colour of the tights shows through the stitches and doesn't look great.

I always use a polyester toy filling. It's more manageable and you can mould it. It's nice and white so keeps your yarn colours true. It's also light weight ' perfect for modelling with.

When you start to stuff, pull your stuffing to bits first and fluff it up, you don't want lumpy stuffing. Start to stuff with small amounts at a time. Mould as you stuff to make the stuffing sit to the shaping of the knitting. Keep stuffing with small amounts and moulding until the part is full.

Under-stuffing can sometimes be a problem. If you don't stuff enough, the parts will be smaller and less able to stand by themselves, especially over time and repeated use. Get into the habit of stuffing well, so that the stuffing is compacted and firm but so that it's not bursting the stitches on the right-hand side of the work.

Just as an example, the average head for a TeaCosyFolk medium sized character tea cosy should be about 9.5cm from top to bottom and about 7.5cm across.







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