Sewing Ideas for Potholders

Choose fabric to suit your decor or your recipients tastes.

Potholders are a kitchen staple. Making them yourself is simple and rewarding as they can be designed to suit your existing kitchen decor while being practical and inexpensive -- you can use up scraps of old fabric to make them. Homemade potholders also make excellent gifts, whether for the seasoned chef in your life or as housewarming or wedding gifts.

The Basic Potholder

Making a basic potholder is simple, but it is a key step in your potholder-making endeavors. Once you can make a simple, square potholder you can begin to think about the other sewing ideas here.

Start by pinning two 9-inch squares of fabric together around the edges, right sides together, with a 9-inch square of insulated batting on top. Sew a 1/2-inch seam all the way around through all three layers, leaving a 3-inch gap between the first and last stitches for turning. Cut the corners off diagonally around a 1/2-inch in from each corner, then turn right side out and top-stitch around the whole piece, a 1/2-inch in from the edges.

Materials

Quirky prints make potholders stand out.

Potholders must be heat resistant to function effectively without causing injury to the user. For this reason it is a good idea to use all cotton materials and avoid polyester as polyester melts rather than burns and can stick to the skin, causing serious injury. With this in mind, choosing materials for your potholders is actually a fairly simple process. Try re-purposing old jeans and printed summer dresses or head to your local fabric store to find some interesting designs. As long as you stick to cotton, the possibilities are endless and you can make one of a kind potholders every time.

Quilting

Using a contrasting thread makes the quilted design stand out.

Quilting can give a beautiful, professional finish to homemade items like potholders and it is a simple look to achieve. Once you have top-stitched around the edges of your piece, continue to stitch round using the previous row of stitches as a guide to keep an even distance between each row. This creates a spiral effect that can be left as is, or further embellished with stitch lines to create a complex and intricate design that only takes minutes to achieve. Remember that although quilting is primarily about texture, using a contrasting thread also makes the pattern stand out visually.

Embellishments

Arrange buttons in patterns and shapes to create designs that stand out.

While plain or quilted potholders can look stunning, it is sometimes necessary to add some original flourishes to make them stand out from the crowd, particularly if your chosen material is fairly plain. Adding a handle to your potholders is easy -- you sew use a loop of ribbon or a strip of scrap material to a corner before top-stitching -- and allows you to hang them up when not in use. You can also add a small pocket to one corner for tucking fingers into or buttons in a certain shape; even applique shapes work well, simply let your imagination guide you.

Shapes

Quilted pumpkin potholders are quirky decorations for Halloween.

Once you have a firm grasp of the square potholder, you are ready to move on to different shapes and sizes. Try some simple designs at first such as circles and triangles, then move on to some trickier shapes such as hearts, cats and even pots - whichever you like best. For seasonal gifts you could try your hand at symbolic shapes like pumpkins, Christmas puddings and Easter eggs, just remember to ensure that the potholders are still functional.

References

• A Pretty Cool Life: Polka Dot Pot Holders
• Martha Stewart: Heart-Shaped Pot Holders
• The Sometimes Crafter: Applique Hot Pads
• Sew, Mama, Sew!: Quilted Patchwork Hot Pads

Resources

• TipNut: 28+ Free Pot Holder Patterns & Tutorials