Guinea Pig Cuddle Cups

As with so many of my guinea pig sewing projects, third time is the charm.  Pinniped may have approved of the last cuddle cup I made, but I like this one best.  Cannoli is pretty happy with it, too.

I usually make cozies and the like from left over material from other projects.  Most of my cuddle cups have two to three layers of fleece and no batting.  This time around I found a chunk of polyester batting and what a difference it makes!  The batting gives the cuddle cup a bit more loft and helps it to keep its shape.  From now on, all my cuddle cups will have batting.

The cuddle cup pictured in this post is about 7" square.  I started with the following pieces, each cut from batting, fleece and cotton material:

•  one 7.5" square
•  one 5 x 30.5" strip

I treated the layer of cotton and batting as a single piece of fabric, stitching all of the seams through both layers.  The batting should go on the wrong side of the cotton material.

Fold the long strips in half and cut a notch that is about 3" long and maybe 3" deep in the folded end of the material.  (This example had a notch about 3.5" deep, which didn't leave as much as a lip as I'd have liked.)  This is the opening in the front of the cuddle cup.  When the strip of material is unfolded, the dip will be about 6" wide.  Then, right sides together, stitch the short ends of the strips together with 1/4" seam to make a loop [1].

Stitching the sides to the bottom is like stitching a binding to the edge of a quilt.  I find sewing straight edges easier than curved edges, but there are corners to deal with.

Next step:  stitch the cotton/batting bottom to the sides.  Mark the center of the dip and the middle of one edge of the bottom.  Pin the side to the bottom, right sides together [2].  Just like a mitered binding, pin it to the corner and stitch from the middle front to corner, ending the seam 1/4" from the end.  Fold and pin side of the cozy like a quilt binding to the next bottom edge and stitch [3].  Continue in this fashion around the rest of the cozy bottom.  Repeat with the fleece material.

Once both inside and outsides are sewn together, insert the cotton piece into the fleece piece, right sides together, matching the back seam and front dip.  Stitch around top edge with a 3/8" seam, leaving a few inches open on one edge to turn inside out.

Turn right sides out, pressing the fleece corners into the cotton corners, molding it into it's bowl-like shape.  Either whip-stitch close the opening or top-stitch the entire outer edge.  Stay-stitch the bottom, 1" from the outside edge.