Summer Sewing School {make a super easy hotpad}

I hope you guys had fun making your pincushions last week. We had a great time and everyone finished their project here at the house. So, now that we have your pins and needles all organized we’re going get on with another useful project. Making hotpads.

There are a million and one ways to make a hotpad. This is just one of them and a super easy one at that. These would also make a great Christmas gift.

{Supplies you need}
1/4 yard cotton fabric – something you would like in your kitchen (this can be one or two pieces of fabric)
Thread
Scissors
Batting or thermal batting (or both)
Straight Pins
Seam Ripper
Ruler or measuring tape
Paper
Fabric Crayons or Markers (optional)
Rotary Cutter (optional)
Cutting Mat (optional)

{Skills Learned}: circular sewing, stacking and flipping

How to make a super easy hotpad:

Make a pattern on a peice of paper (I used freezer paper) of a circle with an 8 inch diameter (across)
Cut it out – with your paper cutting scissors

Cut 4 fabric circles (2 of each fabric if you are using two different fabrics). Two will be for the inside and the outside and two will be for your pockets.
Cut 1 circle from Thermal Batting and 1 circle from cotton batting – or 2 from cotton batting (the thermal is great for not catching on fire, but it really needs the extra thickness of some cotton batting)

Iron the 2 peices for your pockets in half

Iron the outside peice in half and then open up
Lay the 2 pocket peices about 1/2 inch away from the crease of the outside peice
Pin the pockets to the outside peice along the straight edge.

Flip the pocket and outside pieces over and trim off the area of the pockets that is hanging over the inside piece.

Iron over one side of the inside piece – about 1 inch in.

Cut a piece of fabric 2 1/2 inches by 4 inches
Fold in half lengthwise and iron
Open and fold in one edge up to the crease and iron. Fold in other side up to crease and iron
Fold in half and iron. Congratulations, you have just made *bias tape or binding.

Sew along edge of binding

Stack your circles in this order – cotton batting, thermal batting, inside fabric piece with right side facing up and pockets pinned to it. Fold binding piece in half and pin to inside piece between the 2 pockets. Cover with inside piece with right side of fabric facing down. The folded piece should be on one the left or right side, not top or bottom.
Pin all layers together

Using a 1/4 inch seam, stitch all around the circle using your top fabric as your guide.

Either zigzag the edges or use pinking shears to cut away some of the seam allowance
Notice the hole on the right hand side of our hotpad

Open that hole and turn the hot pad right side out – make sure that the pockets are on the correct side. If you can still see the turning hole then flip your pocket over to the other side.