The life of a tea cosy

Looking for curtain material last night I came across a project bag from my school sewing lessons.

It contains a collection of very brown, very '70s cotton fabric hexagons, some stitched together. The project was to make a new cover for this tea cosy which I think belonged to my grandmother. The bright, flimsy silks of the original seem such an unusual choice for a teacosy. I would love to have seen it adorning the tea table when it was newly made.