I don't know about you, but I am always searching for a place to put down my hot dishes after I pull them out of the oven. I thought it might be nice to put together a very simple DIY hot pad. This is about as simple as it gets!
Since, in my rush to place a hot dish down quickly I usually just grab a dish towel, I decided to make a hot pad using a simple dish towel I purchased at Target left over from THIS PROJECT. If you are giving these as a gift, you could make the coordinating towels and THESE GLOVES.
You will need a piece of cotton fabric and a dish towel. I used a fat quarter of cotton fabric (18 x 21 inches) and a dish towel measuring 16 x 18 inches.
My dish towel had a thick border around the edges. I trimmed it so make it uniform and more easy to sew.
I like to use a rotary cutter and a straight edge like the one you see above to get a really precise straight cut.
Trim off all the edges to the desired size (For instance, if you are using a 13 x 9 inch pyrex maybe you would want to trim it to a 15 X 11 to leave enough room for a seam allowance and a small border.)
Take your cotton fabric and dish towel and place them right sides facing together. That means that the nice printed side of your fabric and the front of your dish towel (if you can tell) should be facing together. I like to press mine and pin them together since the stretchy towel can shift a little when sewing. Make sure to leave about a three inch opening in one of the sides for turning. Start at one side of the opening, sew all the way around, then finish at the other side of the opening making sure to lock in the stitches on each end. By locking in the stitches I mean reverse the stitch at the very end.
Pin the edges.
Sew around the perimeter starting at the opening and ending at the other opening, locking in the stitches. I used a 3/8 inch border and just used the end of the presser foot as my guide.
Trim off any excess fabric before turning inside out. trim the corners being very careful not to cut into the stitching you made.
After you have trimmed the excess fabric, turn the whole thing inside out through the opening.
At this point, I like to press the whole thing. I fold under the edges of the opening and press that as well to define the edges before topstitching around the whole thing.
Topstitch around the perimeter of the whole piece as close to the edge as possible. I like to start with the side where the opening is and work my way around from there.
I press mine again at the end to make it nice and crisp and VOILA! You have a pretty place to put down your hot baking dish!
You can make them in different sizes to suit your particular needs. I made the hamburger one first. In this one, I did not trim off the hard border so it was more difficult and thick to sew and came out a little messier, with the edges being a little less crisp but it still gets the job done.
Perfect for a nice hot casserole right out of the oven.
If you like any of the fabric you see, it is available for purchase HERE.
Thanks for stopping by!
Warmly,
Pam