Quilted Double Pot Holder Tutorial
Recently I have been making two types of pot holders as gifts, simple square pot holders, which I have in a different tutorial – and these double pot holders.
Both are easy to make and are great to give as gifts.
Table of Contents
Double Pot Holder Supply List
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- Main body fabric 35″ x 8″
- Backing fabric 35″ x 8″
- Main body batting: (1) 35″ x 8″ quilt batting; (1) 35″ x 8″ Insul-Bright Heat Resistant Batting.
- Hand Pockets Fabric: (2) 8″ x 6″ (background fabric); (2) 16″ x 2.25″ (focus fabric); (2) 16″ x 2.25″ (accent fabric).
- Pocket backing fabric (2) 9.5″ x 8.5″
- Pocket Batting (2) 9.25″ x 8″
- Bias Tape for Pockets 0.5″ x 16″
- Bias Tape or Quilt Binding Strips – approx 90″
Step 1: Layer and Quilt the main body of your Potholder
Take the fabric and batting for the main body of your double pot holder and layer them in this order:
- backing fabric right side down;
- layer of insul-bright batting on top;
- quilt batting on top of that;
- and the main fabric for your pot holder on the top right side up.
Insul Bright is a popular brand of heat-resistant batting (sometimes called thermal batting) used in hot pads, oven mitts, and other projects where the piece will touch a hot dish, plate, or oven handle for example. So perfect for our double oven mitts!
We want the insul-bright at the bottom by the backing fabric as that is the side that will touch the hot dishes.
I originally basted my 4 layers before quilting but for such a small project I found that it was a bit tedious to take out the basting as I quilted.
The measurements I have given you will be trimmed down after quilting so if you feel confident you can skip the basting and just use a firm hand to hold your layers together while quilting or just use some small sewing clips to hold the layers together at the edges.
I used straight-line quilting using my finger as a spacer to estimate the space between the quilting lines.
Note: my sewing machine is a heavy-duty straight stitch machine so it can take all these layers but you may want to use a walking foot on your machine with this many batting layers in your quilt sandwich!
Step 2: Preparing the Hand Pockets
For the hand pockets, we have two accent fabrics and one background fabric.
For my main accent or ‘focus’ fabric I used Tula Pink’s Curiouser & Curiouser Tea Time Sugar fabric and for my second accent fabric, I used a teal-colored print.
Both of these fabrics I cut to 2.25″ x 16″ and pieced them like a strip set. I could have done the same for my background grey fabric but I was working with scraps and didn’t have a long enough piece so I cut them separately.
I sewed the accent fabrics right sides to right sides with a 1/4″ inch seam and pressed.
I then cut this strip set in half making sure I had 3 teacups in the center of each strip for each pocket piece.
I then sewed the accent strip unit to the background fabric and pressed my seam allowance.
I then layered my pieced hand pocket top with one layer of batting and the backing fabric (which was cut larger to be trimmed down later).
I left the focus fabric unquilted and top-stitched on either side of the ditch. I then used the same one-finger-spaced straight line quilting for the rest of the pocket – except I did it horizontally instead of vertically as I did in the main body of the pot holder.
I then trimmed off the excess fabric from the top of each pocket.
I used bias tape to finish off the top pocket.
Double fold bias tape is ideal for this but I didn’t have that so I folded some regular bias tape myself. Mine was approximately 1/2″ after I folded it.
I sewed the short side of the bias tape to the back of the pocket along the crease line then folded it over and sewed down close to the fold on the front of the pocket using a 3 stitch length to give a nice finish.
I am not a bias tape expert so this was a bit of a winging-it moment for me but it turned out fine!
Step 3: Cutting the curves (Optional)
I decided to give my double pot holder some curved ends but you don’t have to do this. You can trim it all up to a square and skip this step if you prefer.
To make my curves I took a bowl that was almost as wide as my pot holder – roughly 7.5″ wide and placed it on the ends of my pot holder.
I used a chalk pen to sketch the curve of the bowl on to the end of the potholder’s main body.
I cut the curve out using my fabric scissors, making sure both ends matched each other.
I then took the main body of the pot holder to a larger cutting mat and trimmed the long sides with my rotary cutter so that the bottom of the curves on either end formed a straight line from end to end on either side (see my video tutorial if this bit isn’t clear!).
To get the curved ends on the hand pockets as well I placed them on top of the main body of the pot holder – measuring to make sure they were an equal length to each other – and trimmed them to match the curves on the main body.
I pinned the pockets in place to make sure they were centered where I wanted them and then sewed each pocket on using a 1/4″ seam allowance.
Step 4: Binding/Finishing
I used straight-cut quilt binding to finish my double pot holder because I had scraps of the grey color I was using for my main background fabric and I wanted it to match.
But I actually recommend using either double-fold bias tape or quilt binding that has been cut on the bias to give it the stretch you need for the curved ends of your pot holder.
The quilt binding I used was 2.25″ strips folded in half. If you are using double fold bias tape just test it against your project to make sure you like the width of it against your pot holder and that it is wide enough to fully cover your raw edges.
If you are using quilt binding like I did then don’t forget to clip notches in the seam allowance of your curves to help it sit flatter.
I made another double pot holder with bias tape and it turned out great without even having to clip notches in the curve – so if I had it to hand I would definitely use bias tape next time.
My Finished Double Pot Holder
This is for my sister. She loves tea and she loves grey. She doesn’t so much love bright colors but I do, so I’m chancing it! Hope she likes it!
I made her some matching square pot holders with a hanging loop on each which I talk about in another tutorial (I’ll put the link here when it’s live!).
Video Tutorial – Quilted Double Pot Holder
Top Tips
- Use small pieces of your favorite fabric for your accent strip – you really don’t need much and this project is great for fussy cutting different prints.
- You can use different colors to add a personal touch to these diy pot holders and match your family and friend’s kitchen decor.
Frequently Asked Questions
Ideally one layer of heat-resistant batting (I used insul bright) plus 1-2 additional layers of batting. Cotton batting is a great choice but you can also use 80/20 or even polyester batting as long as the heat-resistant batting is the outer layer (under the backing fabric!) that will touch the edge of the pan or other hot dish for example.
If you don’t have heat-resistant batting you can use 2-3 layers of cotton batting instead.
Some folk swear by using two layers of Insul-bright but I haven’t tried that myself.
You can quilt your pot holder however you like from simple lines like I did to diagonal lines or even free motion quilting if you like.
Make sure to read the spacing instructions on your package of batting and make sure you are using enough quilting to follow the guidelines – some battings can be quilted up to 8″ apart so you wouldn’t need much quilting at all, but some need closer to 4″ apart for quilting lines.
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