Hot pads and oven mitts are great, but sometimes can be overkill when all you need to do is protect your hand when holding a hot pan or pot handle while cooking. Time to downsize with a slip-on hot handle sleeve. Ours finishes, when bound, at approximately 3¼” x 6¼”, with the opening itself 2⅜” x 5¾”, which is designed to fit most standard cookware handles and is the same size as the options we found available from retail outlets. As always, we recommend testing the pattern against your handle of choice and increasing and decreasing as needed for your best fit.
Speedy Button Sewing by Hand
Buttons, whether functional or just decorative, are a favorite element on Sew4Home projects, but we know you start rolling your eyes when you think about having to break out the needle and thread to sew on button after button. For some reason, button-sewing is stuck in our psyche as a dreaded, time-consuming task. We’re here to tell you that it need not be true! Read on to learn our favorite, super speedy, five-step process to perfect buttons.
Protective Cat & Dog Pet Throws for Furniture
If you share your space with a pet or two (or three...), you also share a certain amount of fur, dirt, and other messes we won't go into here. Fluffy and Fido know they're supposed to stay off the special chair, but that's only when you're watching. Thanks to YouTube, we know what really goes on when we leave the room. Protect your favorite furniture with an easy-to-launder pet throw. Yes, of course you could use an old sheet, but you sew and fabric companies make adorable pet prints. Shield your surfaces in style.
Adjustable Yoga Mat Strap Wrap
We’ve done a few yoga mat totes here on Sew4Home (links are included below), but sometimes you don’t need or want a full bag. You’re dressed and ready, and your minimalist spirit says all you really need is to sling your mat over your shoulder and go. This style of mat wrap is easy to find on retail shelves, but we’re willing to bet none of them are as lovely (or as clever) as ours. We’ve used gorgeous jacquard ribbon from Renaissance Ribbons on one side with standard polyester webbing on the other. All the brain-twisting, wrapping, turning, and securing challenges have been figured out, so you can put it together in a snap.
Compact Quilted Duffle with Handles & Adjustable Strap
We always get compliments on our custom duffle patterns, but we realized the one category we hadn’t tackled was a smaller size bag that would work for kids or anyone who wants a space-saving, on-the-go option. We created a soft, quilted exterior so the duffle can gently expand and mold to better fit its contents. And we used Dritz hardware and polyester belting to pull it all together, adding a fully adjustable and detachable shoulder strap plus Double Cap Rivets to strengthen the pocket tops, and a handy Swivel Hook key lanyard on the inside. It’s true what they say, good things do come in small packages!
Baby Rag Quilt with Soft Edge Scallops
With most of our projects, we’re always emphasizing how you should pay attention to finishing your seams – how you want the inside to look as nice as the outside. With a rag quilt, there’s no need. You actually want your seams to sew. A rag quilt is sewn together so the seams show on the outside. After washing and drying, the seams gently fray or ‘rag,' producing a very soft and cuddly feel. Our design features scalloped outer edges, also ragged, which creates a unique, soft shape to the entire perimeter.
Terry Cloth Shower Wraps for Women & Men
If you’ve ever hunted for terry cloth, you know it can be challenging to find. If you do finally locate some, color choice and weight options are likely to be minimal, and the quality can be iffy. Thanks to the softness experts at Shannon Fabrics, those worries are over. They offer a wonderful selection of premium terry cloth in different colors, weights, and textures. Pick out your favorites to make our pair of classic shower wraps. There’s a full length wrap for women and a waist wrap for men. Great for yourself or as a snuggly gift. Drying off just got a lot more stylish.
Monogrammed Oven Mitts with Wrist Ruffles
The classic oven mitt presents an excellent surface for embellishment. As our embellishment option, we chose a Flourish Alphabet Monogram – one of the built-in designs on our favorite Janome embroidery-only model: the Memory Craft 500E. And, we’ve done this beautiful embroidery with three colors of Aurifil 50wt cotton thread. The result may just be the most stylish set of oven mitts ever! As a gift or for yourself, this is a fun project with a stunning result. We joked about embroidering a “L” on one hand and a “R” on the other — just in case you get your left and right confused when baking!
ScrapBusters: Baby Snakes Catnip Kitty Toys
Make A Snake – I think that should be a bumper sticker. Our baby snakes are too silly to be scary, and they're filled with catnip to make them wonderful little toys for your playful puddy tats. We've done a number of kitty toys here at Sew4Home mostly because we have a number of kitties wandering the various S4H studios, and it's a good way to keep them occupied rather than watching all our thread spools disappear under the sewing cabinets.
Quilted Accordion Pouch for Jewelry, Lingerie and More
This unique expandable pouch is based on a vintage silk stockings holder. Yep! But, since most of us are a little low on silk stockings we need to store, its five pockets are also excellent for jewelry, small lingerie items, makeup or other special trinkets. Accordion out to drop things into the pockets; accordion in, and snap closed. Okay, admit it, you just made a little opening-and-closing sound effect when you read that, didn’t you? And maybe a little wavy motion in and out with your hands? It’s alright; I did too. Accccccoooordion!
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