Chenille Pot Holders Tutorial

Guest blog post from Mom!  Heather and I each received one of the pot holders for Christmas this year and they have quickly become kitchen staples.  Check out her tutorial so you can make your own!

Begin by selected four distinct colors of flannel – you’ll need 1/4 of a yard of each (although you will have a few leftovers).

Cut one 2.5” strip across width of fabric for binding and hanging loop – if you make one. Set aside.  

For pot holders, cut two 6.5″ by 7.5″ rectangles from each of your fabrics for a total of eight rectangles. 

Lay one base layer face up on your work surface.  Stack three other colors on the base layer face up. Repeat with the second base and top layer set.  Use a Hera marker or pencil or chalk to draw a diagonal line from top left corner to bottom right.  Stitch along this line.  You can chain stitch each set of layers to save time and a bit of thread. 

At first I drew lines 3/8” across the whole thing. What a waste of time. After that first one, I just used the presser foot as my spacing guide.  One word of caution!  The needle might not be centered on your presser foot meaning stitching to right of last line = 3/8”, but stitching the left on the return only = 1/4″.  I made a few lines before I discovered this issue with my presser foot.  To correct, I simply added a 1/8” visual distance from the edge of the presser foot and the last stitching line when I was stitching on the left.  Here’s a picture of my presser foot – you can see the distance from the needle to the side isn’t even.

And who cares how straight the lines are. I found I had varying widths and curvy lines. It still worked when cut.

Continue stitching 3/8” from the first stitch line, working your way to corner of your pot holder. Turn the pad and repeat from center out.

Pick up your scissors and slash open between each of the stitch lines through top three layers only. I did find that it’s much easier to do one layer three times than all three layers at once – your hand gets too tired fast.  

You should have one layer of fabric remaining that has not been cut. 

Repeat with the second stack of fabric.

Any by all means, don’t cut through that fourth layer of fabric like this:

But you know, if you do, repair as best you can – don’t worry about how it looks, the back will be on the inside of the pot holder and the chenille should cover the front.

Trim up hot holders to approximately 6.5″ by 7.5″ square. 

Place each stack of fabric back to back (so that cut layers are facing out).  Then use the 2.5” strip to bind the edge of the pot holders.

Begin by folding the 2.5″ strip in half, right sides out.  Lay the strip along the first side of the pot holder so that all raw edges are facing out.  Leave 3-4″ of excess binding strip to hang past the starting corner so you can make a loop later.  Sew the binding strip around the edge of the pot holder. Miter the corners of your binding by folding the strip out from the pot holder at a 90 degree angle. 

Stitch to the corner.  Fold strip back over pot holder with raw edges facing out and continue stitching.

Once you’ve stitched all the sides, size the pot holder loop and stitch ends of the binding strip together

Flip the pot holder over and fold the binding strip over the raw edge.  Hand sew on the back side, the binding around the edge of the pot holder.You’ll have to work a bit to fold in the excess fabric around the loop, but you can do it!
Next, get each pot holder thoroughly wet, wring out and put in dryer with old towels OR just throw them in with a dark load of clothes and find them when you are folding the load at the end of the cycle in the dryer.

And magic: after washing and drying they come out as chenille! 

You can also create a hot pad with this same method.  Simply cut all fabrics to 9″ by 9″ squares rather than 7.5″ by 6.5″ rectangles.

It’s that chenille fun?? 

–Jane