[Riley Lodge] It's Hard to Find a Decent Gothic Potholder These Days ...

ngeapk.blogspot.com - Welcome to another edition of Crafting with the Insomniac - this week's post a result of the difficulties one has experienced in the past trying to find appealing kitchen linens for everyday use. Although such items can often be found during the Hallowe'en shopping season, they are generally of poor quality and sometimes border on the tasteless, as if that's ever been a deterrent. But as the current pair of damask oven mitts are ready for the bin, one thought to share a short tutorial this week on making your own - the hardest part of this project will be choosing the fabric.

The insomniacopted for this one, which was brought to the attention of the “Ladies in Black” by Laura of Roses and Vellum. Which was very unselfish of her, because had the insomniac been the one to discover it, she most likely would have kept that information to herself. A collage of skulls, ravens, toads, owls, bats and damask patterns, it has a little bit of everything the insomniacloves. The fabric speaks to her, and what it appears to be saying is, “Five yards is not enough. Why did you only purchase five yards? What were you thinking?” Something along those lines, anyway.

Michael Miller - Nevermore Collection

Your first order of business will be to find some insulated material. Unfortunately, you're on your own here, as one has absolutely no idea what this stuff is actually called. It is a quilted fabric with a silvery metallic heat-resistant outside and a cotton muslin inside.

L-R: Heat Resistant Side of Fabric Cotton Muslin Side of Fabric

Now, while you might be the kind of person who can pull things out of the oven with just one potholder, a dish towel, your shirt or whatever else is at hand, the insomniac is not such a person. She requires two large oven mitts that go halfway up her forearm, so as to avoid the risk of charred flesh and possible damage to the tattoos. Should you also be such a person, please repeat the next three steps twice - once for each oven mitt. And if you're planning on making a simple round potholder, you probably don't need a tutorial and might want to skip ahead.

Cut out front and back of oven mitt from the insulated material, using this pattern.

Cut out front and back of oven mitt from the fabric.

Baste fabric to insulated material, with cotton muslin side of insulated material on the inside of the oven mitt.

Rather than use a purchased bias tape to enclose the seams, today we'll be making our own using a handy little tool called, unsurprisingly, a Bias Tape Maker. Select a complementary fabric, perhaps something left over from a past project that isn't large enough to do much else with. One has chosen to make a one-inch bias tape to fit around the thickness of the oven mitt. The following instructions are very brief as, should you decide to purchase a Bias Tape Maker, much clearer instructions than the insomniac could ever hope to provide will be included in the package.

Create the first 45° line.

Cut 2" wide strips.

Sew all the strips together.

Run fabric through the Bias Tape Maker.

Now you have, literally, miles of bias tape for future projects.

Bias tape sewn onto the top of oven mitts.

Normally at this point, the oven mitts would be sewn wrong sides together and the exposed seams enclosed in more bias tape. But apparently a little bit of stripey accent goes a long way and adding even more stripey accents made it a bit too busy, even for the insomniac's tastes. Which was odd, considering her “tastes” are best described as completely over the top, bordering on the garish.

The mitts were sewn right sides together. While one had planned on neatly finishing the seams with the serger, it was protesting quite vocally about the two layers of insulated material, so a simple straight seam with a zigzag stitch to finish off the edges was used instead. The second hardest part of the project was turning the oven mitt right side out - the handle of a wooden spoon helped push the thumb out quite nicely.

Messy inside sewing. But as a wise woman once said, “Ah well, that will just have to do.”

The last remaining pieces of the insulated material were used to create hot mats for the Dining Room Table. They, plus the new oven mitts, have been safely put away until the night before the Annual Christmas Potluck so as to remain in pristine condition until then.

Four hot mats are not enough. Why did you only make four hot mats?

Add bias tape loops if you like to hang your oven mitts.

Come the New Year, one already has plans for matching placemats, an apron and a tea cozy because (as you probably already guessed) an additional six yards of fabric have been purchased. Which is the only reason the insomniac has shared the fabric source, in a completely selfless manner just like Laura, because eleven yards just might be enough. But if not, the Michael Miller rep was contacted this week ... is a $1000 minimum order a tad too much fabric, do you think? Quoth the raven, “Never! More!!”

Until next time, the insomniac wishes you nights of blissful sleep filled with pleasant dreams. Goodnight, my pretties.

IA
PostScript: The insomniac was delighted at having made it through yet another year, celebrating her Fifty-Seventh birthday this week. Only three more years and she'll qualify for Senior Citizen Status; apparently she has already achieved Crone Status. Which evidently is not as insulting a comment as was first thought, when she was referred to as such recently ...

other source : http://detik.com, http://merdeka.com, http://insomniacsattic.blogspot.com

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