Tutorial: Pot Holders Made from Scrap

Scraps are taking over my sewing room, well really its my bedroom with a corner desk that has all my sewing stuff in it and on it. Our house is a tad bit small for me to have the room I would like but I am thankful for the corner, which sometimes becomes the whole room. Anyhow back to those lovely scraps, I cannot for the life of me throw away a perfectly good scrap, even some of those not so good scraps make their way back into the huge tub of scrappiness. The problem is that my mind is always working overtime, thinking up new ways to use those scraps but I hardly ever follow through with those ideas instead those scraps just sit there, as I add more and more to them. Thankfully this last weekend I was able to use some of those scraps to make these pot holders for my niece. I used the sleeves from my dads shirt, the shirt that I made my skirt out of and used some scraps from an old skirt. I know my niece will love having something made out of her grandfathers shirt.

Now on to the tutorial. These were so easy, I hope you will try them.

This tutorial is for 2 pot holders.

1. Find 10 scraps of fabric (color and pattern of your choice) that are at least 2 1/2″ by 10″. Trim if necessary.

2. Sew together the scraps length wise, leaving a 1/4″ seam.

3. Iron the seams all in one direction.

4. Cut out two 7″ x 7″ squares from pre-quilted fabric.

5. Lay those squares on top of the sewn together scraps of fabric, right side down, turning them slightly, almost diagonally so the sewn scraps are not lined up with the square. (SEE DIAGRAM BELOW)

6. Pin the squares to the sewn scrap strips and cut around the squares.

7. Before you sew check once more to make sure you have the right sides facing together. Now sew around leaving a 2″ opening in the middle of one side for turning the pot holder right side out.

8. Once you have turned your pot holder right side out, iron it, making sure to fold the edges of the 2″ opening in.

9. Sew a straight stitch all the way around the pot holder, making sure the opening is nicely closed.

10. Now the pot holder is finished but if you want to add some detail like I did, you can add a zig zag stitch going over the seams where the scraps are sewn together. It really gives them that quilted look.