Gunter / Penguin Hot Water Bottle Cover

Every time I looked at my boring old hot water bottle cover, the shape reminded me of Gunter. So I'm making it a reality! With winter on its way and Christmas around the corner, the makes a great seasonal gift for the adventure time fan / penguin fan / child / child at heart in your life.

You will need:

- a hot water bottle;
- felt in black, white and yellow;
- 1 fat quarter or about 40cm black faux fur;
- 1 fat quarter or about 40cm white faux fur;
- paper and pen;
- scissors;
- needle and thread;
- pins;
- glue.

First, draw around your hot water bottle. Then draw a Gunter shape around that leaving about 2cm for the hem.

Mine wouldn't fit on the paper so I trapped two pieces of paper together.

One you have a Gunter shape, fill in the details as shown. To make it easier later on you could omit the flippers as they're a bit fiddly to sew.

Trace your Gunter to make templates of his white belly, black sides and black back. In the pictures, the red line is to show the shape as it will look when it's finished and follows the edge of the bottle. The black line is where you will cut to allow for a hem.

The back is made of two pieces which overlap a bit, like an envelope. This is so that you can actually get the bottle into the cover.

If you forget to draw the hem on like I did with the tummy piece then don't worry. Just don't forget to leave 2cm when you start cutting the fabric.

Pin your templates to the fur and cut around them. In my drawings the black line is where you cut and the red line is where you sew. Don't forget to make sure the fur is growing in the right direction so that your Gunter is super strokeable.

For the face and feet, use the felt. To get the eyes nice and round I just drew around some round things.

Pin the tummy and black sides together along their edges and sew them together to make the front.

For the back, first hem the bottom edge of the top piece and the top edge of the bottom piece. Pin the top piece in place first with the fluffy sides facing inwards. Sew around the edges. Pin and sew the bottom piece afterwards with the top edge slightly overlapping the top piece. When you turn it inside out the top piece will extend over the bottom piece like an envelope.

Attach the face and feet with glue. You can sew them on if you like but glue is easy and means no visible stitches.

So that Gunter is ready to party!