by Mary Beth Krapil
After finishing my place mats (you can read about them here), I had some fabric left over. So, I decided to make a few bowl cozies. You know, the things you can use to keep from burning your fingers when you take your bowl of hot soup out of the microwave? Much easier than trying to use hot pads or oven mitts, which usually end up getting into the soup!
I will share my process with you. Of course, I used my Infinity with Pro-Stitcher to quilt the pieces and parts. I decided to make a set of four cozies.
This is one project where the choice of materials is really important.
Since the cozy goes with the bowl into the microwave, they MUST be made 100% from cotton; cotton fabrics, cotton batting, and cotton thread. Polyester could melt or catch on fire. Yikes!
The fabric is cotton and I chose a 100% cotton batting. I had a few choices of cotton thread in my thread stash to choose from, King Tut and MasterPiece, both made by Superior Threads. King Tut is a 40wt cotton thread that comes in luscious colors, both solid and variegated. For this project I didn’t want the thread to overpower the cute fabric designs and my quilting was going to be minimal, so I went with the MasterPiece, which is a 50wt 3 ply cotton. The finer thread would sink into the fabric and let the fabric design be the focus. Only the texture of my quilting would show. I used a beige for the yellow fabric and black for the black.
I started by loading the batting to my frame as if it was a quilt back. I made my cozies from 2 different fabrics, one for the inside and one for the outside, so they would be reversible. I laid the 2 fabrics on top of the batting.
I would be cutting four 10 inch squares from each of the fabrics after they were quilted. I chose a few patterns from the Pro-Stitcher library. I quilted a pattern into where each square would be cut out, on both fabrics. You can see the quilting from the back on the batting side.
I took the quilted fabric off my frame and cut my 10” squares. I wanted rounded corners (you can leave them square if you wish), so I trimmed the corners using the 4” side of my Handi Quilter Multi Clamshell ruler. It’s really a quilting template, but it worked great with my rotary cutter to get the job done and no marking was needed!
I folded the squares in half and marked 1 inch up from the fold and 2 inches in from the outer edge on the fold, on both sides. I drew a line between the 2 marks and then stitched along that line. Trim excess fabric 1/4″ from stitching. This creates a dart. Then fold in the opposite direction and repeat so that you have 4 darts on each piece.
Do this for each piece.
I matched a yellow lining with a black outer piece, right sides together, matching the darts and curved edges and placed a few pins to hold in place. I moved my MasterPiece thread from my longarm to my HQ Stitch 510 sewing machine so I could stitch around the outside edge. I left a 2 inch (or so) opening, so I could turn right sides out.
Once turned, I pressed with steam, turning under the raw edges at the 2” opening. It helps to use a pressing ham, if you have one, for this process because they are now bowl shaped. I made sure the seams were pushed out completely and smoothly before pressing.
After pressing, I went back to the machine and top-stitched all the way around the outer edge. This will stitch the opening, that you used to turn, closed. Voila! That’s all there is to it and since I used cotton thread they are safe to use in my microwave. They are also kinda pretty!
I still have a bit of that fabric left. Any ideas what I can do with it?
Looks great! – Question – so there is double batting on these? One side on lining and one side on outside? Most of the patterns I have seen have 1 layer of batting on the outside plus a fabric lining with no batting. I see some Christmas gifts in the making! Hope to see you at HQ Academy in June.
Thank you! Yes, there is double batting.
Thanks Mary Beth – great gift idea and bonus is using some stash!
I always use them to make drink coasters
Great idea Marlyce!
We’ve found they work great for ice cream as well!
I like the way you think Sherril! Ice cream is my favorite treat!
Ive made these before but I think your method is easier. I think I will serge the outside rim. That would mean I can place the two pieces wrong sides together and therefore no turning. Thanks for the post. The left-overs would make cute mug rugs.
Good idea Jan! Be sure to use cotton thread in your serger!
I love this idea. I now know you can load a top fabric onto just the batting. I was also thinking matching mug rugs would be great.
Thank you, Janet! Mug rugs might just use up the fabric I have left. Great idea!
I’m guessing you could also use the Insul-Bight in place of one of the batting pieces. What is your thought?
Hi Judi, I looked up Insul-Bright and the information said NOT FOR USE IN THE MICROWAVE. I think because they capitalized it I think they really mean it! 🙂
What a great idea Mary Beth . My question is “Could I use wool/cotton batting?”
Thanks! I am not sure about wool. Since it is a natural fiber it would probably work, however, heat and moisture will cause wool to felt. You might want to make a small sandwich with it and experiment before you try it in the bowl cozies. Please let us know what you find out!
Mary Beth, So glad you told us today about your blog. Have really enjoyed reading it. I especially liked this one since I have made a few bowl cozies but I want to try your method on my longarm. You are an inspiration to all of us!
Make a patchwork cozie by cutting 8 5 1/4 ”
squares,using 1/4 ” seam and sewing together to make the 10″ top and bottom.
Great idea Dorothy!