Reusable Cotton tea bags

Ok, so you probably think I'm mad - reusable tea bags?? Bear with me though.

My cup of tea usually ends up with lots of tea bits in it, and I have to leave the last mouthful or two. The diffuser/tea ball I have does a terrible job of keeping the tea in. My tea press isn't much better. In the middle of the night when I should have been sleeping I wondered if anyone has made reusable tea bags. Sure enough they have. A quick Google of reusable tea bags the next day had me sorted.



I followed this tutorial on lillyella and in less than 10 mins I had a lovely reusable tea bag all of my own. Even better, I had a beautifully clear cup of tea to enjoy. No more bits!

I used a piece of unbleached calico to test it out and it works really well. Although, I wouldn't want to use anything thicker. To make the holes in my calico I used a tapestry needle threaded with perle cotton, combining 2 steps in one. I also trimmed the seams with pinking shears so that they don't fray and I don't end up with little bits of cotton in my cuppa!



The tutorial makes a little tea bag, similar in size to a paper one, so if you want a nice big one or want to make a bag for a pot, adjust the size as needed.

I made up a few for black tea, and a few for green. The ones I've been using for black tea are nice and 'tea dyed'.

Yes, I could probably just get regular tea bags, but they seem a bit wasteful and I love loose leaf tea. It just seems so much more romantic than an ugly old paper tea bag.