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Showing posts with label potholders tutorial. Show all posts
Showing posts with label potholders tutorial. Show all posts

VIDEO TUTORIAL - Potholders from Scraps

 Hello,


I have a mountain of scraps in buckets and bags all around the house. Somehow I just don't have the heart to throw them away. Whenever I see my fabric scraps I feel inspired and full of ideas, but then those ideas remain on my "bucket list". 

A few weeks ago, Tina and I discussed the next swap, after the successful swap we has last month in Desi Quilters. This time she has with the idea of exchanging Potholders and as usual, she came up with the most suitable name "pot of gratitude". This is to remind us to always be grateful during this Pandemic and by making a gift for our virtual friends who always be there to help in our crafting or quilting journey. 


Potholder Tutorial

So, let me talk about potholders that I usually make.


1. Batting

The first question that people ask is always about what kind of batting to use for potholders. Well, we don't have thermal batting for retail here in India. I usually use double or triple layers of cotton batting. A few years ago before cotton batting was easily accessible, I use a few layers of cotton flannel (like THIS coaster). If you have scrap batting, you can use it even if it's narrow strips you can layer them. 


mug rug tutorial


2. Fabrics. 

Store-bought potholders usually use thicker or canvas cotton. I normally use quilting cotton or poplin cotton. And if I use Indian fabrics (mulmul) I usually use nonwoven interfacing to give additional weight. On the back, you can use casement fabric or canvas if you have one.


crumbs quilt


3. Quilting.

You can either sandwich two layers of batting with top and backing and quilt them together or you can quilt the top and back separately like in THIS mug rug. I personally prefer the latter because it turned out thicker which is perfect for potholders. You can quilt the top with denser quilting lines but I'd suggest using less dense quilting lines for the backing. 

potholder tutorial

potholder tutorial


4. Binding

For square or rectangle potholders, I'd suggest using a jellyroll strip. A 2.5" wide is a good one, but if you use thicker batting, you might want to use a 3" wide binding. I normally used 1.5" wide binding for small quilts, but since we're going to use the potholders a lot, thicker binding is always better. 

The same applied to bias binding. In this pumpkin potholder video, I use scraps of about 11" x 17" fabric to make 2.5" wide binding which yields around 1.65 meters of binding strips. Enough to make 2 potholders. 

I wrote about making bias binding in THIS POST using a square of fabric. You can make bias binding from fat eighth or fat quarter like in THIS VIDEO


Bias binding tutorial
Bias Binding Tutorial


Alright, now about the POT OF GRATITUDE SWAP, here are the rules:

- It should be pieced or appliqued

- Should be quilted by hand or machine

- Embroidery can be added but avoid beads and sequins

- The edges must be finished with binding or facing.

- There must be a loop for hanging the potholders.  

- Must be made according to your partner's mood board. Sonalee wrote how to create a mood board on her blog HERE

In the videos below, I shared 2 projects that I made using fabric crumbs. Not really make a dent in my scrap bins but I am using only scraps here. So I'm pretty happy! 


scrappy potholder


Let's get down to work now


For the Crumbs Potholder, you need: 

- 5" long crumbs strips 0.75" or 1" Wide (1.5 to 2 cm)

- Lightweight Fusible Interfacing 8" x 8" (20 x 20 cm) - cut 1 (optional).
Not necessary if using quilting cotton

- Cotton Batting 9" x 9" (23 x 23 cm) - cut 2

- 1 strip Jellyroll or 2.5" x WOF (6.5 Cm x WOF)

- Potholder Loop 2.5" x 3" (6.5 x 7.5 cm) - cut 1





And here what you need to make the Pumpkin potholder:

- Download the Template HERE

- Skinny Strips 1" x 7.5" Long - 20 pieces or so

- Backing Fabric: 7.5" x 9" - Cut 1

- Cotton batting 7.5" x 9" - Cut 2

- Fabric for bias binding - I used 11" x 17" which yields around 65" (165 cm) of 2.5" wide bias

binding. Enough to make 2 potholders.




I hope you find the video helpful, especially for beginners. Please do let me know in the comment below if you have any questions. 


pumpkin potholder


Thank you for stopping by!

Happy Sewing

Elvira


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