How To Make An Easy Quilted Halloween Cup Cozy

If you’ve visited a coffeehouse in the late 20th Century then you might be familiar with the paper cup cozy. It is gives you a grip of your cup. For hot beverages it prevents your hands from getting burned and can help keep your drink warm. For cold beverages it prevents condensation and can help keep your drink cold. Cup cozies are indispensable in coffee houses and once you’ve tried a custom cup cozy at home, then you’ll wonder how you ever lived without it!

Is Halloween one of your favorite holidays? In my family it is in the top three. What’s not to like about it? It has parties, costumes, food and bats. Okay, not real bats. Bats aren’t invited to the BBQ but they do have a cool silhouettes. A Halloween cup cozy decorated with bats makes a memorable hostess gift or a treat for yourself. I’ll show you how fast and easy it is to make Batty Halloween Cup Cozy. All you’ll need is orange fabric, black fabric, InSul-Brite or thick cotton batting, hook and loop tape and silhouettes of King Bat and his minions.

The silhouettes of the minions are two curved lines! I’ll show you a very easy and stylized way to easily draw a host of flying bats.

Combine orange fabric with various black silhouettes of bats, drawn or appliqued and you’ve made custom Halloween fabric and a few batty friends during the rest of the year. I’ll give you step-by-step instructions on how to applique King Bat and and draw his minions on to the orange fabric. Then I’ll show how to use custom fit your cup cozy to any cup using hoop and loop tape. It’s super easy. Let me show you how it’s done and sew your own with this very easy sewing pattern for a cup cozy.

Be prepared for this project. See “Supplies and Tools”, “Fabric” and “Getting Ready To Sew”. 

These are the tools and supplies that I used to make the Quilted Halloween Cup Cozy.

• Walking Foot with guide bar 
• Quarter inch Presser Foot
• Applique Presser Foot or Open Toe Presser Foot
• Coordinating Cotton Threads 
• Thread Snips 
• Hook and Loop Tape With A Sticky Back
• Insul-Brite or two layers of thick cotton batting
• 4-inch Square Ruler (Optional)
• Heat Transfer Vinyl Sheets (Optional) In black for King Bat
• Rotary Cutter, 6 x 24 Inch Ruler, 6-inch Square Ruler and a Rotating Cutting Mat 
• Black Fabric Marker
• Sewing Stiletto and Long Flower Pins and Sewing Clips
• Madam Sew Heat Erasable Fabric Marking Pens
• Double Stick Lite Fusible Web This product is a double-sided stabilizer. Pressing with a warm iron will permanently bond an applique to the orange background fabric. Or you use your favorite stabilizer to applique King Bat to the orange fabric.
• Fabric Glue Pen This is great to temporarily hold the applique in position while you sew.

You’ll need a Halloween orange for the top and backing fabric of the cup cozy and a 6-inch square scrap of black fabric for King Bat. The bat minions will be sewn on to the orange fabric.

• Cut (two) 12-inches long by 4-inches high strip of solid orange fabric
• Cut one 6-inch square of solid black fabric. King Bat will be made from this fabric
• Cut (one) 12-inches long by 4-inches high strip of Insul-Brite or thick cotton batting
• Cut (one) 4-inch strip of hook and loop tape with a sticky back

I think of the steps as the three A’s: Applique, Assemble and Adjust. You’ll applique King Bat and his minions to the orange fabric, then you’ll assemble the cup cozy. The last step is to position the hoop and loop tape so that you can adjust the cup cozy to the cup you are using. It’s so simple, it almost genius!

This shortcut will cut your sewing time in half: You can also make King Bat using Heat Transfer Vinyl. Trace King Bat on black heat transfer vinyl. Cut out King Bat and follow the manufacturer’s directions to bond King Bat to the orange fabric permanently. This Madam Sew DIY T-Shirt Design blog provides step-by-step instructions on using heat transfer vinyl on fabric.

If you choose this method, please skip to Assemble – Step 2.

Use printer paper to print out the picture #2 silhouette of King Bat from this blog or use the free PDF.

Next, I will share with you the best way to use double-sided stabilizer for any applique project.

Trace the King Bat image on to the grid side of the double-sided stabilizer. Then draw a 4-inch square box around the King Bag image. When you finish the King Bat should be in the center of the 4-inch box.

We are going to take full advantage of the double-sided stickiness of the stabilizer to help us cut out and position the King Bat applique on the orange fabric.

📢 Tip: Unlike appliquing letters or other directional images, the King Bat silhouette is reversible. Therefore, you do not need to bother with tracing it in reverse.

Cut along the 4-inch square. And remove the double-sided sticky stabilizer on the back of the 4-inch square.

Position the 4-inch square on the wrong side of the black fabric and finger press it to make it stick. The sticky side will make cutting out the King Bat image easier because it holds it in position for you.

With the wrong side the black fabric facing you, cut out the actual silhouette of the King Bat. Then remove the remaining paper to expose the other sticky side. Save the unused stabilizer later to stabilize the back of the background fabric of your applique. This will fully support the applique and prevent puckering, distortion and stretching.

With the sticky side down, position King Bat on the right side of the orange fabric.

Applique King Bat on the orange fabric using your favorite applique method. For a quick refresher see Madam Sew blog “How To Applique…”

📢 Tip: Stabilize the King Bat applique by repurposing a leftover piece of the Steam A Seam sticky stabilizer from the King Bat silhouette.

Cut a piece of stabilizer slightly larger than the King Bat image. Then separate the stabilizer from the black fabric and apply it to the back of the orange fabric. Now King Bat is fully supported as you applique it to the orange fabric.

Make King Bat’s minions by hand-drawing winged bats using a black fabric marker.

Great job! King Bat and his minions are now the stars of your cup cozy. And you have created your batty Halloween custom fabric too.

Position the orange fabric without the bats on your workspace with the right side facing you. This is the cup cozy backing fabric. [However, If you used a solid fabric color, then there’s no wrong or right side]

Next, position the Halloween custom fabric on top of the backing fabric. The wrong side should be facing you.

Finally, position the Insul-Brite or thick cotton batting on top of the backing fabric. [There is no wrong or right side]

Please check that the perimeter of the quilt sandwich is aligned on all sides. Your cup cozy quilt sandwich is complete.

Sew around the perimeter of the quilt sandwich and leave a 4-inch opening. You’ll use this opening to reach in and turn the project right side out.

Clip the corners to help shape the points. Be careful not to cut into the sewn stitches.

Turn the project right side out and use your sewing stiletto to shape the corners.

Sew the opening closed and the cup cozy quilt sandwich is ready to be quilted.

Use your favorite way to quilt the cup cozy. I recommend easy Wavy Line Quilting. See How To Do Wavy Line Quilting With A Walking Foot for a fun and easy walking foot quilting method.

📢 Tip: I ‘tacked’ the quilt sandwich around King Bat and his minions. This quilted the area without lines of quilting appearing on top of the bats. Tacking is an alternative quilting method to ‘lines’ of stitches.

The secret to customizing the size of the is the length of the 4-inch hook and loop tape with a sticky back. Simply wrap the cozy around the cup and adjust the tape for a snug fit.

Start by cutting a 4-inch length of hook and loop double sided sticky tape. Separate the hook side of the tape from the loop side of the tape.

Test fit the cup cozy on a sturdy cup. Position the hook side of the tape at one end of the cup. The wrong side of the cup cozy fabric should be facing you. The two ends of the cup cozy should overlap.

Once you have a tight fit, trace around the hook side of the tape. Remove the sticky backing and use the tracing to permanently position the hook side of the tape on to the cup cozy. Finger press into place.

Now that you have permanently positioned the hook side of the tape, positioning the loop side of the tape is easy.

Attach the loop side of the tape to the hook side. Make sure that the horizontal edges are aligned. Then remove the sticky side of the loop tape.

Carefully wrap your cozy around your cup starting with the end that does not have any tape on it. When finished, the right side of the cozy should be facing you. And a few inches of the looped side of the tape is exposed. This makes adjusting the tightness of the cup cozy easier.

The end of the cozy with the hook and loop tape will overlap the end with no tape. Make sure that the cozy is not crooked on the cup and make sure the fit is tight. Use that sturdy cup to support finger pressing the sticky side of the tape on to the fabric.

Your Batty Halloween Cup Cozy is finished!

Would you like to try other fun and easy Madam Sew projects? Take a look at these:

• 5 Free – Quick & Easy Quilt Projects
• How To Make Bowl Holders
• How To Make A Scrappy Mug Rug
• Super Simple Quilted Placemats

May your quilting always bring you joy!

Ernie Grant
Guest Blogger For Madam Sew

Ernestine “Ernie” Grant is an avid quilter with over 18 years of experience and is the owner of the custom baby quilt business kalibabyquilts.com 

As an African American living in Harlem, NY her view of quilting is shaped by her heritage and the elders who taught her–Quilting is not just thread, fabric and stitches. It is art, it is love, it is community.