Doesn’t your pussy cat always like to be near at hand when the table is laid for tea, on the chance of perhaps getting a saucer of milk? Of course, you never let pussy himself sit on the table, but it would be rather uncommon, wouldn’t it, to have a cosy on the table with two dear little pussies worked on it like the one in the picture? I think Mother would like it, too, don’t you?

The cosy cover in our picture was made of white Hardanger canvas, and is not fastened to the tea cosy itself, but is made loose, so that it can be taken off and washed. Red “Bright-eye” thread was used for working the cats.

You will want to make it the right size for Mother’s tea cosy, won’t you? Well, you will be able to get it exactly the size, if you first take a piece of paper, lay the cosy on it, and draw round the cosy with a pencil, then cut the paper out on the pencil line.

This gives you the shape of the side of the cosy, but the material will need to be cut larger than this to allow for a seam and a hem across the bottom, so take another piece of paper, and using the piece you have already cut as a pattern, cut the side out again, this time allowing an extra quarter of an inch all round the curved edge for the seam, and an inch along the straight edge for the hem.

Now that you have a pattern, cut out two pieces of canvas exactly this shape, and you can commence to make up your cosy cover.

The hems at the bottom of the cosy have to be hem-stitched, so you had better pull the threads out for this first. Measure each side up 1¾ inches from the straight edge and draw out four threads.

Directions for the simple hemstitching used are given on page 30, but before you do this part you must work your cats and join the two sides together, so that you can turn up your hem all along both sides evenly, and not have to join the hem after they are turned up.

Work your cats in cross-stitch. This stitch was described on page 25, so that if you don’t know how to do it, just turn to this page and see how it is done.

You will be able to count the crosses from the drawing you have of the two cats. The lowest cross of the tail of the cat sitting down should come six threads above the open threads for your hem; this will help you in starting to work the design. Work two cats on each side of the cosy.

When you have finished the pussy cats, place the two sides together, with the right sides facing one another, and sew round the curved edges with a run and back-stitch, then oversew along the cut edges to make them neat.

Now turn up your hem and hemstitch it, then turn the cosy on the right side, and sew a piece of red cord over the seam of the cosy, making three little loops in the centre at the top. You must use red cotton to sew on the cord, and take tiny hemming stitches that will not show too much.

If you don’t want to make your cosy cover of canvas, but would like to use linen or some other material, you can work the cats on Penelope canvas, tacked over the material, as you learnt to do when making the Feeder.