Hot Pads

Last week was very productive as far as creative projects go.  I wanted to share this one in particular because I used a fun gadget to make my Dresden plate hot pads.

We all know I’m fabric cutting challenged so when I saw that Sizzex makes fabric cutting dies I was all in.  I bought both sizes of the Dresden plate dies.  One makes 5 1/4″ petal (pre-sewn measurement) and the other makes a 3″ petal.  I made two hot pads using both.  I’ll add links at the end to the products I used.

I used charm pack square and other various scraps for both hot pads.  The charm pack squares come up a little short on the 5 1/4″ die but I made sure that it was short at the narrow end and just made a larger center circle applique.

If you aren’t familiar with the Sizzex Big Shot die cutter here is how it works:  You place your fabric (or paper, as it is generally used for) on top of the die and sandwich it between two acrylic plates and then run it through the die cutter by cranking a handle.  It’s very low tech but works like a charm.

I wish my Big Shot was a little less lurid (they do have a nice sedate pale gray one) but I got it on clearance when a craft store was going out of business.  Beggars can’t be choosers and all.

The 3″ die cuts three petals at a time and a 5″ square (like a charm pack square) works perfectly.  I used five different fabrics for the smaller design.  At first I thought it only required 12 petals to make the plate and after I sewed it all together I realized I needed three more petals to make it lay flat so I picked it apart and inserted another petal after every fourth one.

I used two sided fusible interfacing to secure my plate to a square of linen and then zig-zag stitched around the edges.  I appliqued a small circle of fabric to cover the raw edges of the center of the plate.  I cut out a circle of card stock and ironed the raw edges of my fabric circle around it and boy was that fiddly and finger burning.

For the back and binding I used the same linen fabric and sandwiched some Insul-Brite batting between the layers.  I would actually recommend adding another layer of very thin batting or felt just to make it a little bit thicker.

I wasn’t real happy with how my binding turned out so I covered it up with some lace trim.

The larger Dresden plate only took 12 petals and I used a different charm square for each petal.  The larger die cuts two petals at a time and I just overlapped two squares and ran it through the cutter.

I wanted this hot pad to be the shape of the Dresden plate so after sewing the petals together I layered the plate on top of the backing fabric (right sides together) and laid them on top of the Insul-Brite and sewed around the edges of the petal.  You can sew all the way around because the center of the petals creates an opening you can use to turn it right side out.

After sewing the layers together I trimmed it as close to the stitching as possible and then turned it right side out.  I then stitched all around the outer edge.

I tried to create the center circle applique the same way as I did the square hot pad but I couldn’t get my circle to be nice and, well, circle-y.  So I cut out two circles of fabric, sewed them together and then made a slit on the backside and turned it right side out.  Much nicer.  I thought the white circle looked a little stark so I added two rows of hand quilting using red thread.

Here are links to some of the tools and products used (non-affiliate links):

• Sizzex Big Shot
• Large Dresden plate die
• Small Dresden plate die
• Insul-Brite batting

All in all a pretty easy and quick project and a great way to use up extra charm pack squares or scraps of fabric.