Free crochet pattern: bear coffee sleeve

This pattern was originally posted in May of 2014 and had terrible photos and poor instructions, so I'm updating it!



The updated version is way better looking, too! In my opinion anyway. :) Here's the original:

It's so friggin' blurry! I couldn't have taken an extra 5 minutes out of my day and tried to take better photos??

Siiiiigh. Well, here's an excerpt from the original post:

First things first, why a coffee cozy? Well I’ll tell you why, there weren’t any extra mugs in the cupboard at work (there usually are!), so I had to buy one if I wanted coffee. The only thing we had in the store was a metal water bottle. This thing gets hot! It’s BPA free (or so it says) so at least I don’t have to worry about poisoning myself. So yeah, I needed this thing.

Supplies

  • 4mm hook

  • worsted weight yarn

  • felt for facial features

  • scissors

  • tapestry needle

  • hot glue gun (can sew on or use fabric glue instead)

Terms

Puff stitch

Puff stitches vary greatly between patterns, but for this one, don't elongate the stitches, and finish the stitch when you have 7 loops on your hook. Secure it with a ch1. Here's a little tutorial from Red Heart, but keep in mind the puff in their tutorial has 2 extra yarn overs. Stop when you're at 7 loops (theirs is at 11 loops).

Instructions

To start, chain 32 and join to the first ch with a sl st.

R1: make a puff stitch into the same ch, sk the next ch. Repeat puff, sk for entire row, then sl st to top of first puff.

Now test the fit after this row. Your tension might be different than mine, and your sleeve might be too big or too small. Make your starting chain bigger or smaller in multiples of 2 and try again until it's right.

R2-R6: sl st into the space between puffs, then make 1 puff. Make one puff in each space for the entire row, then sl st to top of the first puff.

Finish off.

I used scrap yarn for this coffee sleeve and ran out of the first brown I used after R5, then after R6 I ran out of THAT brown, so I made the ears of yet another brown. So I have 3 different browns here haha. It's not intentional, but it actually looks alright.

Ears

Make a magic ring of 4 puffs, then do a sl st & pull closed. Finish off & use tails to sew to sleeve.

Felt pieces

Now grab whatever colored felt you'd like and get your glue gun warmed up!

First cut out 2 white squares & shape them into circles.

Next, lay your circles down on black felt, so the black is overlapping half of the white circle. Then cut the black felt around the white circle.

Next, cut out red/pink squares for the blush & shape them into circles.

Hot glue time!

Now your glue gun should be warmed up & ready to go! Remove all of the felt pieces and glue on the whites first. Then glue on the pupils, then finish with the blush.

And then clean up all those darn glue strings...

Now when you're using hot glue, don't worry about getting glue all over the surface of each piece in one go. It'll dry if you take too long! Just put a small dot on the center & press it on. After that, lift up the edges a little bit at a time and apply more small amounts of glue. Take your time and keep it nice & neat, but still very secure! Also, I highly recommend gluing them on while the sleeve is on a cup, rather than flat.

Next, use yarn and embroider the nose & mouth. You can copy mine or do something different!

And you're done!!

I hope you enjoyed this free bear coffee sleeve crochet pattern! As always, tag me on social media if you make one!! What's your go-to drink at your favorite coffee shop? Mine is a chai latte with almond milk. ❤



Tags: bear, coffee sleeve, crochet pattern, freebies
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