DIY Fabric Tea Bags

Even after digging through my scrap pile to make my USA map, I still had a lot of little scraps of fabric leftover. While browsing Pinterest one day, I came upon the idea of making fabric tea bags. I am a huge sucker for anything in miniature and I absolutely love tea parties. Several of my good friends have little girls whom I love to spoil, so this was a perfect fit!

DIY fabric tea bag

Making the tea bags is really easy but a bit time consuming depending on how many you make. Somehow I turned myself into a little tea bag factory and made a ton at once. This is a really quick project if you're only making a few though.

The first thing I did was grab a bunch of fabric scraps and a tea bag. I folded each fabric in half with the right sides facing each other. Using the tea bag as a template, I traced both the bag itself and the little tag on to my fabric.

Then I cut out each bag and label. Each one should have two pieces (a front and a back). Keep the pieces together, still right sides facing each other, and sew three sides leaving the top open. This is similar to how you'd make an unlined bag.

Three sides sewn, top left open

Next, flip the tea bags inside out. Since these are so small, it gets a bit tricky. I used my seam ripper to help push the corners in. With the bags right sides out, I added a bit of filling to give it a more realistic feel. I used pearl barley, but in retrospect I probably should have used something like cotton stuffing or some other material that can get wet. But I've seen other people make heat pads out of pearl barley so it should be fine. Put in as much stuffing as you like. I only used a little bit to mimic the feel of a real tea bag.

Once I filled my bags, I cut a piece of twine and put one end inside my bag. Then I sewed that end closed.

I grabbed my two label pieces and flipped them so they are right-side out. Then I stuffed the other end of the twine in between labels and sewed all four sides. This should leave the twine securely fastened between the bag and the label.

And that's it! You've got an adorable tea party waiting to happen. Add a tray and a tin to keep your bags in if you're feeling fancy. I hope my little girl friends love these as much as I do.

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