You guys, you guys!!! You have made me feel over the moon excited! from all your comments on my pop bottle curtain post. I am super excited about it, but I've learned that that doesn't necessarily mean anyone else will be (and that would have been ok too), but seriously? Over 100 comments about it? I just want you to know I read each and every one and each one warmed my heart. Promise.
For today, I'm going to be sharing a brief how-to bind a crochet square and make it into a hot pad.
This idea all started a couple months ago when Rachel at Stitched In Color asked me to do a sort of guest post for her and she asked me to do a crochet project. I've been a crochet-er for over 20 years and have always loved it. And I love taking a common crochet project and making it a bit different by adding some sewing to it.
So let me present to you my "hooked and bound" hot pads.
To make your very own hooked and bound hot pads, this is what you'll need.
- a crochet square, using 100% cotton yarn (your choice on pattern and size. I used the pumpkin patch pattern here for the brown/creme one and pattern #30 out of 101 Stitches for Afghans for the red/creme one.)
- 2 3/4" strip of cotton fabric, pressed in half, for binding (the length of the strip will be determined by your size of crochet square.)
- cotton backing fabric, cut about 2" bigger than your crochet square
- insulbrite cut about 2" bigger than your crochet square
- cotton batting cut about 2" bigger than your crochet square
- 2"X6" cotton fabric for loop
- walking foot (this is absolutely necessary)
Directions:
1. Layer your backing (right side down), insulbrite (shiny side down), cotton batting, then your crochet square (right side up), and pin.
2. Using a walking foot, "quilt" the sandwich however you like. I used matching thread so you can't see the quilting so much on the crochet square, but can see it on the backing fabric.
3. Trim the batting, insulbrite and backing so it is flush with the crochet square. Make sure you don't trim any of the crochet threads. As you can tell from my pic, a lot of times the crochet square will not have a perfect square corner, but is kind of rounded. Trim your batting to a square point anyway and use the binding to cover this discrepancy later on. (I didn't do this on the red/creme hot pad, but curved the corners around the crochet square and it turned out a little wonky, so I don't recommend doing it that way.)
4. Using the 2X6" loop fabric, fold both the long ends into the center, then fold that in half (this is how double fold binding is made) and use a straight stitch to sew the edges together. Pin your loop onto the center of one side on the back.
5. Apply your binding by sewing the binding on the back first, fold the binding around to the front, then sew it down to the front. I use a machine for putting the binding on, but you can sew it down by hand on the front if you are concerned with the stitching looking perfect on the back.
And there you have it. I hope you are able to use this tutorial and make your very own hooked and bound hot pads!
Also, please come on over and join my sewtakeahike patterns and tutorials group on flickr, pretty please? I have no shame and will beg for friends, lol!
One more thing! Make sure and check back on Tues, Oct 18 when I'll be doing yet another tutorial. This one will be for the 12 gifts of Christmas blog hop!
Happy Friday!
~Penny
