I have a friend with a toddler who LOVES to pretend in her play kitchen- she prepares tasty snacks for friends when they come to visit and serves a mean cup of coffee.
She also recently became interested in tea so her mama let her add a few real teabags into the mix (super fun)! But after a little while, the bags ran the risk of breaking open....an inevitable Tea-tastrophy!!!
My mind began to brew an idea (see what I did there?) to create some tea bags that would stand the test of time and allow her creative tea time play to flow freely!
The supplies: White organza fabric, silky white cord, mini pom poms, thick interfacing (also a sewing machine & a lighter...to burn stuff!)
Step 1- Cut the fabric into teabag sized shapes (2 organza rectangle shapes per teabag). Sew them together along 3 edges (leaving the top open) and then cut off the excess along with the top two corners to give it that teabag shape!
At first I thought I would turn the bags inside out after sewing so the thread would be hidden. But after trying that, it got a little puffy and didn’t sit flat....and I think I liked the rough edge better anyway! I did go around the edges with my trusty flame to seal off the fabric and prevent it from fraying when played with (just be careful not to get too close and set it on FIRE!):
Step 2- Fill them with ‘Tea’...teeny tiny multicolored pom pom balls:
Step 3- The string and tea tag. I chose a thin, silky cord for the string and then went to the sewing machine to embroider letters onto some thick-ish interfacing I has saved from another project. I ‘wrote’ out the word TEA with my handy dandy machine for each of the 6 bags I had made and cut them all out in a tag-like shape. Then cut a matching blank shape to be the backing...sandwiching the cord in the middle and sewing all around the edge to secure:
Step 4- Putting the 2 parts together...I tied a little knot at the end of the cord and melted it just a little with the flame to keep the knot from eventually slipping, then placed it into the open bag and sewed the top shut:
Tea is served!! I was pretty excited to present this gift to my toddler friend...wrapped them up in an old tea box for delivery:
Cutest little pretend tea ‘drinker’ on the planet!!
