Free 3D teapot SVG files

How a flat sheet becomes a teapot

A round belly cannot be made from flat card, so these pots are faceted. The body is one piece: the base in the middle with a panel hinged to each side. Each panel has two parts, one that leans out to the widest line and one that leans back in to the opening, with a fold between them. Every panel is the same, so the edges that meet are the same length, and each panel carries the two glue tabs for the seam on its right. Fold every line the same way, glue the lower seams one by one, then the upper ones.

The spout, the handle and the knob are flat and are each cut twice. Glue each pair back to back but leave the tabs free, push the tabs through their slots, open them out inside and glue them down: do the spout and handle before you close the last seam of the body, while you can still reach in. The lid is two pieces: a cover a little larger than the opening, and a plug a little smaller whose flaps fold down inside it. The knob’s tabs are hidden between the two. The round pot is rolled, not folded: glue its wall into a cone, push the base disc into the wide end, fold the teeth in under the disc and glue them, and make the lid from the disc and the collar strip, whose teeth are glued under the disc.

Sizes and card

The files are 100 mm on their longer side, so scale them up before cutting. The classic pot, cut 270 mm tall, has a body 70 mm across its flat sides and 49 mm tall, about 107 mm from the tip of the spout to the back of the handle, and its sheet is 270 by 153 mm, which fits A4 card. Scale the whole file, never one piece: the slots only match the tabs at the same scale.

Card of 200 to 250 gsm folds crisply on the slits and keeps the panels flat. The fold lines are rows of short slits cut by the blade, so nothing needs scoring. These are decorations and gift boxes: they will not hold tea. Every size here is worked out from the drawing, not from a test cut, so try one in plain paper first.

How to open the files

• Cricut Design Space: choose Upload, pick the SVG, and add it to the canvas. Set the width you want; the shape is already welded.
• Silhouette Studio: Designer Edition and above open the SVG. The free Basic Edition does not, so open the DXF instead.
• LightBurn, xTool Creative Space and Glowforge: import the SVG, then set the layer to cut, score or engrave.
• Inkscape, Illustrator and Affinity: open the SVG. It is a plain filled path, so you can recolour it, add a stroke or combine it with your own work.
• Printing or sublimation: use the PNG, which has a transparent background.

Each design page lists the file’s narrowest part at seven sizes, so you can tell whether it will survive at the size you plan to cut.

Questions