upcycled pot holder tutorial

While I do TONS of cooking, it dawned on me over the weekend that the only pot holder we have in the house is a tacky snowman pot holder! I decided this was unacceptable and I had to fix the problem immediately. So I set out to create a cute and unique set of pot holders made from things I had on hand.

After looking through my fabric scraps and the "donate pile", I though the best upcycled material to use for my pot holders was an old pair of jeans- I wanted to use the color blue, the denim is nice and thick and I didn't have to break into any of my new fabric or canvas- which is reserved for more important projects right now!

I started by cutting out squares for the front and back and I made sure to hold onto the pockets to use on one side to slip my hands into.

I also used some scraps of white fabric and painted polka dots and stripes with yellow dye-I love pairing blue and yellow together :)

If you are not up for creating your own fabric with paint or dye- cut up an old shirt, table cloth, sheet or dig through your scrap fabric pile to keep from spending $$

The inside of the front pockets of my jeans had really cute floral fabric so I utilized the fabric and cut out circles. I layered the floral circles on top of the yellow polka dots.

I stacked everything on top of a piece of batting and stitched the surface with lots and lots of circles.

I added more stitching with turquoise thread.

I added another piece of batting to the back of the denim square and then sewed the polka dot fabric to the denim square.

And I added straight stitches along the sides of square.

I set aside the front squares of the pot holder and got to work on the back squares.

I didn't want the pockets to look so much like pockets of jeans so I used some of the striped fabric and a few extra blue strips to make a little patch (in the shape of the pocket) to cover the top of the denim pocket.

I stacked everything on top of batting...

and sewed the strips down with lots of stitches.

After the patches were finished, I stitched them by hand onto the top of the denim pocket.

The last step was to sew the front and back together.

I added another piece of batting in between the two sides and sewed them together.

optional- add a loop for hanging

And there you have it- one of a kind pot holders with no money spent!