Denim Pot Holder Tutorial

Update 14/12/10   I have changed the size I cut of the pretty fabric and the denim squares  from the below diagram.  Now I cut pretty fabric 8 1/2" square and I cut the denim 9 1/2" square. It doesn't matter what sizes you cut so long as the denim is about 1" larger than the pretty fabric and the batting squares are 1/2" smaller than the pretty fabric.

A few weeks ago I blogged about the denim pot holders I had my grandsons make from old denim jeans when they were here.  I have had several more questions about them so decided to post a tutorial on making them.   The frog one above is one that I got as a gift from a friend many years ago and it has seen much use and sparked the idea for the project.  This is one of my favorite pot holders as it really shields my hands from the hot pots and pans.
I made mine bigger than the frog one and cut the fabrics and batting the following sizes.  You will need 2 - 9 1/2”squares of denim from old jeans, 2 – 8” squares of cotton batting that is pre-washed and dried and 1 – 8 1/2” square of pretty fabric  It is very important that the cotton batting is pre-washed and dried in the dryer as it will shrink when the hot-pad is finished and the denim bubbles on the back and the batting bunches up.  I cut off a hunk of batting a little larger than the size I would need and soaked it in hot water, squeezed it out really well then put it in the dryer with a towel to dry then cut my shapes. I then marked the quilting lines on the front of the quilt fabric with a new marking pen I just got.  It is a Frixion gel pen made by Pilot.  The marks come off with a hot iron but have not used it for anything else yet so might want to be careful marking something really precious.  They are supposed to be erasable too.  The verdict isn’t in yet whether these will be good for quilting but on these pot holders thought it would be a good test.   It certainly disappeared when I pressed it with a hot iron.  The web page says the lines will come back with temps of 14 degrees but wonder if they would come back if you washed the fabric – will have to give that a test before I use it to mark quilting lines or use it for applique.

The lines were stitched but I didn’t like the way it was so compressed in the center with the lines all crossing there so took out the diagonal lines and stitched just vertical and horizontal lines instead.   The first pot holder I stitched I layered the pretty fabric on the two pieces of batting and quilted them together.  My later ones I stitched these quilting lines with one piece of the denim to the back centered under the batting and quilting fabric and liked it better.  My original potholder didn’t have the quilting lines on the back so tried to give these the same look – steam can follow the holes left by stitching and come through and burn your hand so keeping one piece of denim on the back with no quilting lines would keep this from happening.

Quilting VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Center the last piece of denim on the back right sides to the outside  and the pretty quilted sandwich on the top side facing up and pin it together.  The seams are all exposed and will be clipped like the rag quilts.  You should have about 1/2” around the edges that is just denim.   I used a embroidery stitch on my machine and the walking foot to stitch the layers together close to the edge of the quilting fabric.  I just overlapped my stitching on the corners and at the end to secure.  Remember this is a pot holder or hot dish mat so it doesn’t have to be perfect.  The fringing on the edge that takes place after clipping when you wash and dry it will camouflage it anyway.

Stitching the Layers Together VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

The last step is clipping the edges.  I clipped out the corners and made clips every 3/8” almost to the stitching line.  I laundered them with some towels and that helped to fluff up the edges.  I didn’t have the boys do this on their pot holders but will when I get to their house the next time as the edges fluff up better.

Easy Peasy – all finished and ready to use!  You might notice this grid quilting is done differently on this one than the one I wrote about and showed above.  It really doesn’t matter how it is quilted only that it is quilted.

I plan to keep this one nice and not use it for a pot holder but to lay on my table when I use my tea pot.  I am storing it with the tea pot so I don’t forget and dip it into some casserole and have it messy when I need it clean and ready for tea with friends.

I think that is easy to make so give them a try and it is a good project for kids as there is really nothing you can do wrong and it doesn’t matter if the stitching is straight or not.

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Until Later,

Lynn

PS
Check out this blog post on the Ivory Spring blog on the Frixion pens by Pilot.
Another post showing more potholders on this blog entry.