Kettle Handle Potholder Tutorial

Last year I made kettle handle holder for my knitting buddies, and these potholders might actually be the thing I make that is most requested by family and friends. I used to think that people wanted it just for the cute factor. They would say they burned their hands on their kettles, but I didn’t quite believe them. That was before I got my new stove.

My new stove is gas. The old one was electric. Gas burners make your kettle handles much hotter. I found this out the hard way the first 10 times I went to pull off my tea water. Each time I burned my hand a little voice in the back of my head went, “Now you’re cooking with gas!” It was fairly obnoxious, and I finally put on the kettle handle potholder I had made for myself.

If you want to make a kettle handle holder for you or someone else, here id how I did it. 

Kettle Handle Potholder

Materials:

    8.5 x 5 in. piece of felt (I used a fulled sweater)
    8.5 x 5 in. piece of pattern cotton fabric for potholder backing
    1/2 in. double fold bias tape (purchased or made yourself)
    1 button

Instructions

    Pin the felt to the cotton fabric rectangle of the same size, wrong sides facing. Quilt the two layers together. Use straight lines that run lengthwise and are 1 in. apart. Start in the middle, then work your way out to one side, then the other.

After quilting, the edges of the cotton fabric will most likely not match up with the edges of the felt due to stretching while sewing . Trim the edges so that they are even–you will trim about 1/4 in. from each side.
Cut two 7in. pieces of bias tape, and sew the opening edge shut on each. These are your ties.

Apply the binding. Cut two pieces of bias tape the size of the long sides of the potholder. Tuck the sides of the potholder into the fold of the bias tape and stitch close to the open edge of the tape. Take the two ties and line up one raw edge of both along one short edge of the potholder on the felt side. Pin them in place.

Cut two pieces of bias tape that are an inch longer then the short sides of the potholder. Fold the bias tape over the short sides of the potholder, tucking the raw edges of the tape under. Stitch close to the open edge of the tape, through all layers.

Finishing: Trim the ends of the ties on an angle. On the felt side of the end of the potholder without the ties, sew the button about an inch from the edge (or place it so it fits your particular kettle when wrapped).