How to Make a Hot Water Bottle Cover

I've made a cover for a hot water bottle, a gift for a friend. The hot water bottle I chose was tiny so giving exact dimensions, for a pattern, is difficult. I hope this post gives a general idea of how to make a pattern, to fit any size hot water bottle. First I drew around the bottle, adding a flap at the top, this will fold over and be fastened with a button. I added an extra 2cm allowance all round. From this initial template I made three pattern pieces. Pattern pieces marked 'B' and 'C' overlap by 10cm, this forms an envelope opening, making it easy pop the bottle in and out.  I used two pieces of fabric with wadding (batting) sandwiched between them, you could quilt this. The edges are finished with a bias binding. I made my own bias binding but it's probably easier to use ready made. If you use a thick enough fabric, like a felted jumper, you wouldn't need wadding and instead of binding you could use a blanket stitch on the edges.

I wanted to make a hot water bottle cover from a jumper, recycle it and turn it into felt. Things don't always go to plan. The jumper, I chose, just wouldn't co operate, no matter how much I boiled it, agitated it, twisted it and pummelled it, it wouldn't go to felt, it just stayed the same. I had to resort to a plan B and treat the fabric as knitted.