Make your own potholders – Tutorial

This week it was pretty much impossible for me to do anything fun or blog thanks to the flu and lots of work. This morning, though, I brought my daughter to school and I got off to “work.”

Our potholders were in pretty pitiful shape, except for a gloved one and some bigger ones. But those little cone-shaped ones which I’ve only found here in Italy are just so convenient and I’d been wanting to make new ones for months. Who knows what I was waiting for. They’re super easy and fast to sew up and, using material from some old clothes, I didn’t pay a cent for them!

To make one of these potholders, I cut an 11-12 cm diameter circle (revision: I just realized that it’s actually an 11-12 cm RADIUS, so 22-24 cm diameter) from an old pair of cotton (with lobsters) pyjama bottoms and two more of the same size circles from a worn-through black linen jacket of my husband’s. I then cut all the circles in half (or you can already cut them out from the fabric as semicircles if it helps you fit them in). Cut 11-12 cm of pretty ribbon, fold it in half and pin it to keep it folded. I actually used a piece of twill tape that came from some nicely wrapped gift.

So, first place down the two linen semicircles, one cotton one with the right side up, the other cotton right side down, and the other two linen ones. Pin them along the curved edge. Then fold it in half and mark the half-way point with a pin. You need to put the ribbon next to this pin (so it will not be perfectly centered) with the folded part inside between the two cotton semicircles, leaving the ends sticking out the top. When you have it positioned nicely, pin it to keep it there.

Then you sew it, leaving a quarte of the top straight side open. Take out all the pins, trim the edges and stick your finger inside to take the pin out of the ribbon.

Turn it the right way out by pulling the opposite corner through the hole left in the stitching. Fold the open edges inwards and pin them shut.

Decide which side of the cotton you like the most and would like on the outside. Fold it in half with the good side inside, pulling the ribbon in. If you want to use a sewing machine, be sure to use a needle for heavy fabrics, or just do it by hand (I broke a machine needle at this step!). Line up the edges and straight stitch the two straight edges together (NOT the curved edges). Then turn it the right way out and just look at your awesome potholder! It looks so good and you might have even made it recycling clothes that you would’ve just tossed out otherwise! Now doesn’t that feel good?!