DIY: Homemade Tea Bags

I bought so much loose leaf tea from McNulty's that I wanted to gift some of it in a pretty way so I decided to make some homemade tea bags.

You'll need loose tea, coffee filters, needle & thread (or a sewing machine if you're talented), some fun scissors, some normal scissors, pretty paper, pens, craft glue, and a stapler.

I laid two coffee filters on top of each other and cut out a circle using pinking shears. I basically just trimmed off the ruffly part of the filters.

Sew the two pieces together just around the non-folded part.

And if you're using a sewing machine, you can skip this step, but i went back and sewed between the stitches to make a tighter and more secure seal.

Open up the top of the tea bag and fill it with tea. I used about 2 teaspoons of chai in each tea bag. And for the darjeeling, I used about 3 teaspoons.

Stitch up the top. Since I was doing it by hand, I used the same technique as before and stitched across once and then filled back in between to secure the seal.

Tie a piece of string (3" to 4") to one of the stitches.

Cut out a small piece of the pretty paper and label with whatever type of tea is inside the bag.

Add a dab of glue to keep the string secure.

Fold up the little label and staple it shut.

Tada!

I made a bunch, 5 bags of darjeeling and 5 bags of chai.

I made a little package, using a little plastic container (originally had fresh basil in it), added a cute little label and packed it all up. I even put a little label on box with directions.

I wrapped up the chai in a plastic bag since it's so strongly scented.

I'm going to send these to my cousin as a small Christmas gift. Cute idea, right?