This is the first hot iron cover I made. It was on my “to do” list as you might recall if you read the last post. I started out following the directions in the tutorial I mentioned yesterday but decide I could do it more simply. Simpler? I don’t know but it came out just fine.
The tutorial called for three darts. Once elastic is inserted in the channel, it really didn’t seem to matter if there were darts or not—so I left them out.
I cut two fabric ovals out, about two inches larger than the largest iron I had there. It was generously cut. Then I cut one layer of Insul-Brite about 1 1/2″ smaller, and a layer of cotton batting the same size as the Insul-Brite. The tutorial I read didn’t say anything about cotton batting but the Insul-Brite packaging states you should always use a layer of cotton batting to absorb moisture. That seemed solid to me so cotton batting was added.
I laid the batting and Insul-Brite on the muslin with the Insul-Brite next to the muslin. I stitched around the outside edge so that the IB/batting would not move around within the cover once it was all stitched. After that was secured, I laid the fabric right side down against the muslin and stitched close to the edge of the oval all the way around, leaving a 3″ opening.
I turned the fabric sandwich right side out so that the IB/batting was now the “meat and cheese” of the sandwich. Then I top-stitched all around the outside edge, leaving a 1/2-3/4″ opening. I then stitched again about 3/4″ away from the top-stitching creating a channel.
At this point, three times!!!, I realized I forgot about the ties. No problem. After the 1/4″ elastic was threaded through the channel I created, and secured, I closed up the opening. At that point, I took care of the tie issue.
It would be good to make the ties (or use ribbon) and stitch them down when you have the fabric and muslin sandwich. Your ties would be inside the sandwich until you turned the whole unit right side out. Of course that means you would pins the ties in place while stitching. That would keep all of the tie except the end you wanted stitch away from the stitching.
Anyway, this wasn’t meant to be a tutorial so if it’s not clear, I’ll just say I didn’t mean for it to be. Hah! You probably don’t need of these unless you often put your iron away hot. With four of them and many people reaching in to the cabinet, we wanted to make sure we didn’t get any burns and to keep from melting something plastic. That was my reason for making one for each of the four irons we have in the cabinet.
Second cover
Third cover
Each one I made slightly different but all worked just fine on my iron. The elastic edging allows for the various size irons to be accomodated. Of course the second, third and fourth covers are shown here on my iron.
I think they work quite well and I’m happy to have that done. I’ve been thinking about making those since I saw that tutorial several months ago. Big check mark – DONE.
We had a visitor at our quilt group this morning. Lynn came with a quilted jacket on, not the same pattern we used but a lovely green jacket.
It’s there on the chair. Unfortunately, I was having trouble with my camera today and didn’t get the shot I thought I took. Aggravating, truly. The next time I see an ad for a camera I can afford, I’m going to buy it. Maybe.
Lynn is showing her “locker hooking” in this photo. It is the loveliest looking rug. She makes it with 1 1/2″ wide strips of fabric, a rectangle of rug hooking canvas and a locker hook which looks like a crochet hook with a needle eye on one end.
This close-up shows you how nice the work looks. Who knew there were so many ways to use strips of fabric? Well, it turns out that my friend Linda knew as well as others who were here at the park about three years ago. They learned locker hooking, nal binding, and four other techniques for rug-making that year. I love the look of this! Lynn’s colors are fun too as I’m partial to teals.
Beside Lynn’s project, we also go to see Linda’s finished reverse applique needle cases. I love the colors she used.
Nice work, Linda. Your family and friends are going to love these.
Anita also brought her John Deere tractor lap quilt she has finished. I showed you an early stage of this before Christmas. ‘Nita made this for her DH, a JD tractor owner and member of the same antique tractor group my DH belongs to.
‘Nita hand quilted each block. Doesn’t it look awesome? I know Doug loves it; what tractor-lovin’ guy wouldn’t?
Lastly I wanted to show you the Valentine Card I made for a swap I’m doing on Swap-bot.com. It went out in the mail today.
I used narrow strips of red t-shirt to make the roses. I rolled up the strips tight in the middle then let it loosen up for the last several rows. (I read last night that these t-shirt strips have a name: tropes. So they are trope hearts. I pinched the botton and glued it down on the paper. Voila! Hearts! I then drew stems and a hand holding the “flowers”, cut out some green leaves and glued them down.
Inside of Card: “A Heartfelt Happy Valentine’s Day”
That’s all I have for tonight, friends. I hope you are all keeping busy. I’ve actually had a fair amount of “down” time since I finished my quilter’s jacket, and I’ve taken advantage of it. I read a wonderful “escapist” novel called The Return of the Rose by Theresa Ragan. Time travel, romance and the England of King Henry–great combination and quick read. Loved it.
Marsha
