This tutorial is brought to you by Stefanie over at I Make It You Make It. She shows us how to sew an adorable vintage-inspired chicken potholder. Make it to use as a great accessory in your kitchen, or whip one up as a gift for your next dinner party host! The modern print in this vibrant cotton fabric is a great complement to the vintage look of the potholder.The fabric is layered with cotton batting to make a quilted fabric that gives the potholder a lush padding. This sewing pattern is suitable for sewers at any level, and takes about 2-3 hours to complete.
Materials
- 1/4 yard of cotton fabric (45" wide)
- 1/4 yard of cotton batting
- 1 yard of 3/8" double fold bias tape (or make your own with 1/4 yard of cotton fabric (this project uses Hawthorne Hues Solid in Red)
- Pattern -- you can draw up your own, or get it here
- Notions: thread, scissors, ruler, pins & needle
Preparations:
Prepare quilted fabric with your cotton batting using this tutorial. For this project, I used the red/white fabric as my main fabric (right side) and polka dot fabric as the backing (wrong side). Only the right side will be showing in the final potholder.
- Create bias tape with contrasting fabric using this tutorial
- Cut out the pattern pieces
1 chicken body piece out of quilted fabric, with right side of fabric facing *up*
1 chicken body piece out of quilted fabric, with right side of fabric facing *down*
1 piece of facing from quilted fabric
1 chicken comb from contrasting fabric, cut on the bias
1. Prepare the Chicken Comb
a. Press the comb flat
b. Hem the straight edge, by folding it up 1/8", then another 1/8" and press. Stitch along the folded edge.
c. On the curved edge, sew a gathering stitch 1/4" away from the raw edge, then sew another just inside the first.
d. Pull gathering strings to ruffle the edge
2. Prepare the Chicken Body
a. Pin the chicken comb to the right side of one of the chicken body pieces, and stitch with 1/4" seam allowance
b. Pin 2 chicken body pieces together, right sides together with the chicken comb sandwiched in the middle. Stitch with 1/4" seam allowance from the neck up the beak, over the head and along the back. Clip curves and at the back of the neck.
c. Turn right side out, and press flat
3. Make the Hanging Hook
a. Cut 1 piece of bias tape 3" long and stitch along the edgeb. Fold the hook in half and baste it to the outside of the tail-feather of the chicken
4. Putting it all together
a. Place chicken body to facing with the wrong sides togetherb. The next steps describe how to attach the bias tape around the edge of the potholder. Open up the bias tape along the edge of the chicken body (raw edge to raw edge) with right sides together. Pin the tape all the way around.
c. Stitch all the way around in the creased edge of the bias tape fold. You'll be stitching through the bias tape and 2 layers of quilted body.
d. Fold the bias tape over the edge, keeping the raw edge of the tape tucked under. Pin in place, and then stitch around the edge. After you stitch all the way around, when you get to the end, tuck the raw edges under and stitch on top to secure.
That's it! You're all done. If you liked this pattern, you can check out more patterns and tutorials at I Make It You Make It! And if you like that minimalist fair isle design done in a Scandinavian hand, here's the full Mod Studio fabric collection available in our shop!
