Goooooood Morning!

We're just straight up CHUFFED that it's Friday! I intend on doing little more than chilling the weekend away with my beau, sippin' on these SUPER cute Valentine's inspired tea bags!

Shot and filmed for us by the lovely Old Bear Films, if you weren't in the mood for a cuppa before, you certainly will be now...

I mean... Does it get any cuter?!

A perfect handmade gift for your tea drinking lover this February or, hello!? Would they not make the the sweetest DIY wedding favours? Or maybe as a little treat at your bridal shower?!

Mix it up by changing thread colours, tea flavours, even the shape of the bag if you fancy! They're super easy to create (trust me, you're talking to a seriously reluctant sewer here!) and pretty cost effective too!

Let's get into it shall we? Whether you're celebrating Valentine's with your lover, GALentine's with your squad or you're simply a tea-loving Brit (anyone else feeling the need to spontaneously burst into a rendition of Rule Britannia here!?) this DIY's for you...

• White Coffee Filter Papers - we used these, eBay's finest!
• Loose Leaf Tea - this ebay supplier was incredible, they delivered the very next day
• Pencil
• Needle
• Embroidery Thread
• Scissors - the sharper the better, it's intricate work, don't cha know!
• Teaspoon
• Glue - stick or pva
• White Card
• Patterned Gift Wrap - we got all heart-eyed for some good ol' IKEA paper
• Kettle
• Your Girl Gang
• Biscuits (optional)

You guys, this is so simple. In fact, I almost feel like writing it out is superfluous! If you're in a hurry go ahead ignore me and just use the pictures, haha!

Nevertheless, to get ready to make your first tea bag you'll wanna do the following:

• Take a single coffee filter (which has two layers of paper) and draw the desired shape for your bag. We went for the whole heart thang obvs, but you do you! The heart was around 4cm at it's widest point.
• Now you wanna prep your embroidery thread, so we measured just under a metre of thread (I know that sounds a lot, but you'll need extra for the back stitch we're gonna do and of course for your tea bag's thread!)

• Once measured out, you'll want to pop a simple overhand knot in the end of the thread, don't feel you need to pull it too tight, we want a nice bulky knot so the bag won't unravel!
• Trim the end that you've knotted, leaving only a 2-3mm of excess
• Thread your needle and you're ready to sew, my friends!

Ok, so as an infamously terrible sewer - I'm not kidding, my husband does the sewing in our house when necessary, or I call in the Mumatron!- this was a surprisingly easy part of the process!

• Start at the point of your heart (if you're using a different shape, choose the point at which you'd like the bags thread to sit) and from behind your filter paper push the needle trough both layers of paper and pulling the length of the thread through, making sure your knot sits happily on the back of the paper
• Then simply make a single small stitch of around 3-4mm in length by then pushing the needle back through the paper again

...You see, I told you this bit was super unnecessary, I mean are you guys ok breathing on your own too?!

Man, I can't take myself seriously sometimes!

• Ok, so because we're doing backstitch so that we don't have the gaps of a running stitch, next you need to leave the same distance as your first stitch and push the needle through from the back of the paper at that point (it's kinda hard to describe... see the image above!)
• Then to complete that stitch, take your needle back down the previous hole (again, a picture's worth a thousand words, see the image below!)

...Repeat the above two steps, following your pencil outline, until you're 2/3 of the way round!

Yes! This is the super exciting bit, mainly because you get to open those heavenly bags of tea!

We went for a couple of different flavours, The Beverage Club's amazingly colourful Venezia Rhubarb-Strawberry Rooibos and then their sumptuous Japanese Cherry Blossom Green Tea ... And let me tell you, they smell utterly divine!

And the gorgeous sunflower, corn flower and peony petals... They're just PERF for Valentine's!

[insert 100 heart-eye emojis]

I digress, sorry guys, back to the DIY...

• You wanna create an easy opening into the tea bag, so slice away the edges near your opening, cutting them down to 1/2 an inch to make it accessible
• Simply separate the papers and gently peel them back (trying not to loosen your existing stitches) and pop around a teaspoon of your loose leaf tea into the bag

...Don't worry if your bag doesn't look totally full at this point, once you've finished sewing and given it a little shake, you'll find the tea distributes evenly into the space!

• Now finish off your sewing, using the same stitch as before, heading to back to your starting point
• Once you reach the end, tie another simple over hand knot and gently pull it tight, as close to the filter paper as possible
• Remove your needle and leave the remaining thread hanging loose
• Carefully cut around the bag, around 2-3 mm from your stitching while being SUPER careful not to cut your remaining loose thread (believe me when I say that snipping that thread is very easily done!)

And then this is our final step, making the little tabs, which really is a case of you-do-you-boo!

We liked the idea of a single tab that mirrored the shape of our tea bags, but you could totally mix it up and add a couple of little adornments to the thread if you have the time!

As for the card/materials we used, again this is totally up to you! We fell hard for that gorgeous IKEA gift wrap, between the geometric designs, the copper metallic and them pretty much nailing the Pantone 2016 colours... It was a match made in heaven!

That said, if you'd rather just use plain coloured card, or doodle your own designs on the tabs, go ahead and get creative on these next few steps!

• So! Given that the gift wrap alone wasn't sturdy enough to create the tab from, I went in and cut out a small rectangle and stuck it (all over) to a more rigid piece of card
• Once your glue has thoroughly dried, flip the card and draw the tab shape you want to create. Our little heart tab was just over 1cm at its widest point
• Then cut it out, simples!

• Now, because I wanted my tab to be double sided, and I'm a closet perfectionist, I cut another small square of the wrapping-covered card (see the image above)
• Place the square piece of card under your tea bag's thread (leaving a good 10cm between the tea bag and the tab) and then glue your heart tab onto it, sandwiching the thread! I'd advise being fairly liberal with your glue here

Then to get that perfectly shaped tab, then cut around the heart shape with some sharp scissors, including snipping through the excess thread

And there you have it!

Mix up your thread colours with complimentary tab colours/patterns and line 'em up ready to brew!

Invite the gals over, brew with your beau or get super busy in prep for your wedding day and enjoy the aromatic scents of these sweet little pockets!

OUTRO

OUTRO

Well, it's been simply divine sippin' a cuppa with you, but we're not quite at the weekend yet so I best hustle!

We'll see you on the flip side, guys!

Peace + Love

Clare XO