Useful things for the kitchen

So the dreaded oven/hot mitt is finally finished ... I was stalling because I have learned I truly detest sewing together the fabric-batting-muslin sandwiches.  Now I understand why people pay the asking price for prequilted fabrics!  (Note: If you enjoy diagonal machine-quilting layers of batting and fabric together, all the power to y'all and I wish you bliss .. this just is NOT my thing.)

It won't win any awards, and I will definitely be buying my next hot pad and oven mitt at the store rather than make another, but this one does match my apron perfectly:

Hot/oven mitt done

Oh yes, for a certain chat regular: hot mitt = oven mitt.  Ovens tend to be hot.  This project also has ruined my sense of humor temporarily.

Logistical note on construction: make the inside layer smaller than the outside one.  (Should I make that a Sgt Obvious tip as well?)  Have an extra sewing needle on hand - the batting dulls a needle faster than topstitching canvas and buckram do!

While procrastinating on sewing the hot mitt, I have also been using my crochet hooks to make useful kitchen items:

Lumpy (textured) dishcloths

Bobble/Pop scrubbers

Swiffer pad with textured bottom

Swiffer pad, top

These crochet up fast, are a great way to practice the new stitches I had to learn to make them ... and hubby says we need multiples (the second scrubber and dishcloth are already given away) not just for our house but to give to family as gifts.  I also made a ridged textured dishcloth that ended up being tested in my son's bathroom.  He says it works "very good" and sounded a little surprised about it.

Kitchen hot mitt: Return of the sewing mojo!

For a few weeks now, I have been saying I need to replace my hot mitt and hot pads since they come out of the wash looking bedraggled ... I am sure hubby was beginning to think I was just talking, but the sewing mojo has returned this morning alongside that proverbial wild hair!  I'm classifying this as a knockoff like my pillowcases since I literally grabbed the old hot mitt, set it on some wrap-paper from Hobby Lobby (they wrapped my glass candle in it), and traced around it with an ink pen.

Hot mitt pattern

I suppose it might be possible to achieve "easier" another way, but for me this was the most convenient.  I added about a 1/4 inch seam allowance around all but the wrist area since I intend to simply use binding to cover that up.

For those who find my handwriting difficult to read: I cut two for the outside fabric, two for the inside fabric, 4 layers of cotton batting, and four layers of thin cheapy cotton muslin to keep the batting out of my feed dogs.  I even cut it out immediately:

Hot mitt layers cut

Now ... which machine to pull out and stitch the fabric and batting layer sandwiches?  I did think of having hubby or son man-handle the Anchor onto the table for me, since Anchor had no problem ripping through linen and buckram ... but I still have black thread in the bobbin and really prefer a drop-in bobbin over wrestling with getting a metal vertical in properly.  Same issue with Timex - vertical bobbin.  So I'll probably grab another low-priced workhorse of mine: my Brother CE5500-PRW computerized that has gone through 8 layers of canvas (and is another one where I don't sew delicate fabrics with).  I've reviewed it over at PatternReview, but haven't posted a pic here on the blog.  I'll try to remember to snap a pic while quilting together the layers before assembly.

Speaking of quilting ... this batting ain't cheap!  And I even waited for the 50% off sale to buy mine.  Then again, neither is the quilting cotton section fabric.  It is also a pain in the (*donkey*) to lay out - the crib sheet sized piece I bought wasn't folded perfectly straight before packaging.  I'm saving every last scrap of it in a zippy baggie to stuff stuff, like maybe a cat toy or a bumroll.

Finally, my inside fabric came out of my scrap bag, which holds more canvas and duck pieces so it will most likely contribute more to the hot mitt/hot pad project as inspiration strikes.

Pillowcases: Fast instant gratification

This was the true instant gratification project I was looking for last week: knocking off store-bought pillowcases.  If I realized they really ARE this easy, I'd have done them up a lot sooner.  Seriously, grab up a pillowcase or two and take a peek at its construction ... meanwhile here are my three:

I started on this idea after a late lunch ... about 2:30 in the afternoon when I started measuring my store-bought example.  I finished them a few minutes ago, clocking in three pillowcases in less than two and a half hours.  My intention (once I realized how fast the first one went) was to have all three done and on the pillows before hubby got home from work, but they let him out of his cage early today so he walked in as I was putting the last two together.

I made these two inches wider and about three inches longer than the store-bought examples, because our memory foam pillows are slightly larger than standard pillows and we need to wrestle them into the standard sized cases ... these slide in nicely, with enough overhang neither of us wake up with only half the pillow cased.  Victory!

Meanwhile, it seems I have been tagged by Rebecca from Wannabe for the "Stylish Blogger Award" ... quit snickering.  So I need to think of seven things to tell folks, then tag seven new victims ... and it should get its own post, of course ... once I figure out what seven things y'all might actually want to read about.