I know you can darn socks, and I’d love to try some time, but first I came up with a simple sewing project to upcycle old socks! This would make a great diy gift for Valentine’s Day and costs pennies. I’m sharing a tutorial for how to turn socks with holes into a DIY upcycled coffee cozy and I hope it saves some socks from the landfill!

The cuffs of socks easily slide over coffee travel mugs so you can go nuts adding personalization with hand embroidery, felt, or needle felt roving on.

If you like this post, check these out while you’re here!

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Full disclosure, I don’t drink coffee or tea, haha. I do sometimes drink hot chocolate but I mainly use this sucker for water.

Pin this upcycle tutorial for how to turn socks with holes into a DIY upcycled coffee cozy with this link or collage image:

Turn socks with holes into a DIY upcycled coffee cozy

Supplies

• 1 stretchy sock with a ribbed cuff
• Wool blend felt – I used pre-cut heart “felt fetti” but you can draw your own easily
• Coordinating floss – I used Sulky cotton petites!
• Hand sewing needle
• Sewing machine – my picks for beginners here!
• Rotary cutter
• Acrylic ruler
• Quilting clips
• Pins

Steps

Step 1– Use a rotary cutter and slice off the foot of the sock with a nice clean cut; mine was about 5.5″ long but adjust as you need for the size of your beverage container and how much sock cuff you have to work with.

Step 2– Fold over a cuff and clip, keeping it even around all the edges (I adjusted this after I took the photo, it’s a little lopsided).

Step 3– Time to sew! Make sure you’re using a ballpoint needle and a stretch stitch, I went with the triple stitch but a zig zag will work as well. If your machine has a free arm, gently slide it over and guide it with your hands. I sewed leaving a fair amount of hangover, which kept the line nice and even as opposed to trying to sew right along the edge of the hem.

Step 4– Flip it wrong side out and carefully trim the excess away from the stitching line, otherwise it looks funny when it’s stretched out on the coffee cup.

Step 5– Pin on hearts when it’s on the cup! I used pre-cut heart “felt fetti” but you can draw your own easily.

Step 6– Take the cuff off and hand sew the hearts on, I used Sulky cotton petites, and you’re done!