Somewhere along this road we call life, we ended up with several matching promotional insulated can and bottle drink holders.*
*Or can Koozie.Or coosie (cozy, cosie.) Or huggie. Or bottle hugger. Or beer sleeve. Or bottle jacket. Or the so awesome I can’t decide which name is my favorite: coldy holdy or the Australian stubby holder.
I didn’t think they were very useful at the time and tossed them into the back of a kitchen cupboard that is so close to the ceiling I never use it.
It was only after I learned you can ripen avocados in a neoprene can Koozie like the avocado bag I don’t have (an
avocado ripening bag looks like this for reference) that I put those now deemed useful beer huggies into a lower cupboard where I can easily find and use them to ripen avocados.
(Disclosure: I am including some affiliate links in this post for your convenience.)
If the insulated bottle holders didn’t all match I could pull the drink cozies and use them as drink marker charms when we treat ourselves or guest to our recent
retro soda pop (check them out here!) obsession.
Let’s fix that and make embroidered insulated bottle koozies!
Save this tutorial to your Pinterest boards for later! Share it with your friends!
How to Machine Embroider Insulated Bottle Sleeves
You can easily sew insulated beer Koozies from scratch (you can
buy the insulating fabric here) or machine embroider on a plan insulated neoprene can sleeve (you can
buy plain can cooler sleeves here ) if you like.
In my case, I wanted to upcycle the free promotional insulated beer coolies I have into something cuter than a walking advertisement for a company I’m not going to use.
You will need the following supplies for this craft project:
Insulated foam drink holder
Jersey fabric – I tried covering a soda pop sleeve with cute cotton fabric and it didn’t have enough give to put a can inside it. A few experiments later, jersey fabric worked the best as a functional can holder. I used plain t shirts I bought on clearance at the craft store.
Embroidery sewing machine – I have
this sewing and embroidery machine and love its versatility!
Machine embroidery stabilizer
Embroidery machine thread
Sewing machine thread – yes, there really
is a difference between machine embroidery and sewing thread
Seam ripper – I have a
handmade seam ripper necklace similar to this one and never lose it while I’m in the middle of a sewing project !
Scissors
Sewing gage
Tailor’s chalk or pencil
Straight pins
Step by Step How to Make it Tutorial
1. Hoop your stretchy fabric and embroidery stabilizer and use the embroidery machine to machine embroider a design onto the fabric with embroidery thread, if desired. You can hand embroider the design if you desire.
Caution: It is better to pick an embroidery design that is light on thread that will allow your fabric and cozy to stretch around a can or bottle than a more dense and thread intensive design that doesn’t allow fabric movement.
2. Use the seam ripper to open the sides of the foam drink huggie and lay it flat. We will use this as our pattern in
Step 3.
Hey! It looks like a Tie Fighter! Pew! Pew!
3. Using the flat bottle cozy as a pattern, trace it with the tailor’s pattern onto your embroidered fabric.
Tip: Make sure you trace your pattern slightly larger than the cosie on to leave a seam allowance on the sides and enough fabric to fold over the top of the coozie and sew into place to make a neat top hem. The sewing gauge will help you measure and mark a consistent seam allowance.
4. Pin the fabric to the bottle snuggie. Use a
stretch stitch to sew the bottom sides of the fabric to the snuggie. If you do not have a stretch over lock (serger type) stitch on yours sewing machine like I do, you can use a stretch zig zag stitch.
Tip: You want to use a stretch stitch when sewing your beer cozy so it will allow the neoprene to contour to the bottle or can you put in it.
Tip 2: To keep the embroidered stretch fabric from slipping and otherwise trying to go wonky when removing the pins to sew it, I use a quick spritz of textile spray adhesive like this kind to keep the fabric and neoprene in place while I remove the pins as I sew.
5. Fold the the fabric over the top edge of the beer coolie, pin it into place, use a
stretch straight stitch to sew the hem into place. Repeat this on the other side of the coolie. Trim the excess fabric with a pair of scissors if needed after sewing the hems.
You might want all of your pins to go in the same direction - unlike me - oops!
6. Fold the koozie in half, right sides (the pretty part) together and pin into place. Use a use a
stretch straight stitch on each side to sew the koozie back together again. Trim the excess fabric with a pair of scissors if needed after sewing the side seams
Tip: To make sure you don’t sew the bottle holdy too small to hold a can or bottle, you can try sewing just over the foam and onto the fabric. Or not. It’s up to you.
7. Turn the koozie right out, pop your favorite drink inside, and enjoy
If you’d rather buy than DIY, check out the following options –and more! – below!
Check out these unique can cooler hacks on my food blog Lazy Budget Chef!
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