I have made so many hot pot holders in my life. Before selling quilting patterns, I used to make and sell rice bags, hot pot holders, and lots of other things. Making these is also a great excuse to practice your Free Motion Quilting and Ruler quilting.
For a set of two matching hot pot holders, you will need:
4 squares of cotton fabric that is 8 inches square.
2 squares of Insul-brite which is insulated batting that is also 8 inches square.
2 strips of 1 1/2 inch wide fabric that is the width of fabric (WOF).
Create two sandwiches from the fabric and batting.
Quilt the fabric sandwiches with whatever design you would like.
Add binding. You can use whatever method you find best, but I like the quick and easy version for hot pot holders. (Although quilts need the best!)
I start by using a 1/4" seam allowance and wrong sides of the fabric together, sew the binding along all four sides, leaving the extra attached at the end.
Next, clip the corners. This helps the corners lay flatter.
At this point it should look like this.
Roll the binding over to the other side, turning 1/4" under. Stitch down close to the edge. Start stitching the same place where you started on the other side. Stop about 3 inches before the end.
Cut the extra binding about 3 inches past the end of the hot pot holder. Make sure the binding is still folded, as shown in the picture. Wrap the extra around and tuck the end under the binding to make the loop. Finish stitching to the end of the hot pot holder. You will not need to stitch the loop.
You are all finished! These make great gifts for house warmings, birthdays, Christmas, weddings, etc.
Have fun quilting!
I have looked at literally dozens of “simple” potholder blogs. Yours is the only one that is GENUINELY simple. Thank u so much. Sooo grateful.
Hi Norma!
Two strips would be one strip for each pot holder. If you have a strip long enough you could use that too!
Thanks for asking!
Do you really require ‘2 strips’ for the binding? It looks like you’ve used one long strip. N
Thank you for your tutorial. I love how you make it so simple.
Thank you for this tutorial! As a novice sewer/quilter (I free handed as a kid and got serious sewing masks when covid hit). your instruction along with clear photographs was easy to follow and modify as I needed based on the material I had.
Made two pot holders tonight, first one got botched up because I tried to get too fancy (discovered loads of fancy stitches this machine has to offer!). The second one turned out much better when I kept it simple with stitching. In time with more experience I may try fancy again.
Every year I search for something creative and original but generic enough to give as gifts for my work clients. This is absolutely perfect.
Thank you again for posting this!