Simple Sewn Solutions — Janet Szabo

The itch I needed to scratch yesterday was ridiculously simple, and I am happy with the way it turned out.

I made a casserole for dinner last week, and as I scooted two hot pads together to make one large enough to put the 9 x 13 pan on the table, it occurred to me (for the 413th time) that it would be great to have one hot pad large enough to fit under it. I’ve made potholders—it wouldn’t be hard to make an oversized one.

I forgot about that idea after dinner. A few days ago, while cruising YouTube, this video popped up in my feed:

(Let’s ignore, for the moment, the creepy idea that YouTube is reading my mind and just accept this as a gift from the universe.)

Do I need a pattern or a tutorial to make an oversized potholder? No, not really, but this maker’s video was well done, so I watched it. Yesterday morning, I pulled out two fabric remnants, a yard of Insul-Bright, and a scrap of cotton quilt batting. The instructions call for two layers of cotton batting, but I like to have the Insul-Bright as one of the layers to reflect heat back into the pan. I cut everything to size, layered it, quilted it, and bound it. On a quilt, I hand sew my bindings. For potholders, I machine stitch the binding, although I join my binding ends the same way I do on my quilts. (In the video, she has you tuck one end of the binding into the other end, but I didn’t like the way that looked. Truly, if we want people to pay for handmade items, it’s worth the extra five minutes to make it look better than what’s coming out of China and being sold at Walmart.)

I got four of these oversized hot pads out of the remnants and the piece of Insul-Bright. I am keeping one, and I’ll put the other three in the sale. I would have churned out a few more, but I used all my Insul-Bright and didn’t want to make a trip to Joanns to get more. I’ll wait until it they have a big sale and stock up.

[Joann Fabrics has ratcheted back their sales, noticeably so. I am not sure if that’s because they are short on stock or because the bean counters pointed out that they were losing money. Batting routinely used to go on sale for 50% off every couple of weeks. The most I’ve seen it discounted lately is 30%. Every so often, there would be a huge sale on knits at 60% off, and that hasn’t happened in a long time. They also have pushed some of their bigger deals to online only purchases. I still find plenty of deals, but I’ve been shopping there long enough to notice the change in marketing.]

I love the idea of making these hot pads in bright prints with fun bindings—heaven knows I have plenty of bright prints, and I’ve been collecting gingham for binding when I see it—but this more subdued fabric worked for the trial run. And who knows? One of the other members of the craft-co-op may be light years ahead of me and will have some in the sale. If not, we can all make some for next year.

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I sorted potatoes into burlap bags yesterday afternoon. They’ll go into storage in the root cellar. We didn’t get many Yukon Golds, but the ones we did get are huge, so I set those aside to use as seed stock next spring.

I should have been out working on garden cleanup yesterday because the weather was so nice, but instead, I was inside sewing. I’ve come to the realization that there really isn’t as much time for cleanup in the fall as I think I have (or wish I did). I’ll still get plants pulled and hoses put away, but I am not sure I’ll be able to complete my grandiose soil amendment plans. (Who am I kidding?—all of my plans are grandiose.)

DD#2 told me the other day that Nordstrom is so short of staff at their retail stores in Seattle that they’re asking corporate people to step in and work some shifts. She is going to work at one of the Nordstrom Rack stores on Friday. Nordstrom can do this because they have a policy of requiring corporate staff to have worked for a year or two in retail. Still, if they are having problems now, I wonder what they are going to do during the holiday season.

And after months of not being able to land a full-time job as an occupational therapist in Ketchikan, DD#1 set herself up as an independent contractor. She’s not going to have trouble finding work this way, and it gives her more flexibility with her schedule. This does mean some traveling—she has been taking the ferry to nearby islands to see pediatric clients—but she’s working and she’s happy.