I had a family friend come over yesterday. She wanted help making an apron to take with her when she moved away for college. She loves the colors Orange and Green, thus the apron she made (which was reversible....Orange on one side and Green on the other), had these colors. There were scraps left over, so I helped make 2 hot pads for her to take with her. They were, of course, Orange and Green. I learned how to do this from a colleague of mine, Melanie F. Here is how you can do the same. This is a simple project and is not time consuming. It also uses the scraps you have on hand.
First, layout your scraps on a flat surface. These scraps are just a cotton/polyester mix. Choose a bowl that is just wider than the width of your hand with fingers spread. Lay the bowl with the lip directly on top of the fabric.
Trace the perimeter of the bowl on to the fabric with a pencil or marking pencil.
The inside of the hot pad is made from scraps of flannel. These are flannel scraps left over from a pajama project I had last fall. As before, trace around the bowl. You will need between 4-6 layers of flannel inside the pad.
Because I love short-cuts, I just pinned the first set of circles on to the fabric and cut them out. This way, I didn't have to retrace the bowl each time.
Next, cut strips of fabric on the bias. I used strips that were ~3 Inches in width. Cutting on the bias allows the fabric to stretch when needed.
After cutting all of these out, you should have the outside fabric circles, the flannel circles, and the bias strips of fabric to finish off the edges.
Stack the circles with one of the outside fabrics at the bottom (facing toward the table surface), the flannel in the middle, and the other outside circle on top. Here I turned the flannel circles wrong-side out to place just under the outside circles. If I hadn't done this, you would have seen the plaid pattern show through. Pin along the outside edge.
I then pressed the circles in half and then quarters. This gave me guidelines to stitch across the circle. I first stitched the circles in half, then quarters, and then eighths.
Next, press the bias tape in half.
Press the edge under about a 1/2 of an inch.
Pin the bias tape around the outside edge of the circle.
Pin the raw edge of the bias tape to the raw edge of the circle. Stitch with about a 1/2" seam all around. Then unpin the tape. Pull it over the raw edge, pin again, and top stitch the folded edge to the opposite side.
Press the hot pad flat with your iron.
Here is the hot pad with the finished apron. It's fun, easy, and very functional. And, it's "matchy-matchy" which our young friend seemed to like.
Try it!
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