DIY: Oven Glove

My sewing machine has been lacking some love recently so I was looking for a new project and with my oven glove having seen better days I decided on today's project - a DIY made to measure Oven Glove.

Firstly I'd like to apologise for failing one of my New Years resolutions already - it has to be a record! Let's see if I can get four posts up in February, keep your eyes peeled every Monday!!

You will need some time and patience for this project and of course a sewing machine but you don't need to be a pro, I'm certainly not. I go to Hobbycraft to get all my craft supplies and today was no exception. I picked up a pastel stripes fat quarter bundle I will be using this for both my inner and outer fabric. I also researched the best wadding and most people suggested Insul-Bright it's specific for oven gloves as it insulates and reflects heat back to the source. I could only seem to find this online and as I wanted to do this project today I just got the thickest wadding that they sell per metre. It seems to be just fine - fingers crossed I don't burn myself. For the loop to hang your glove up and the bottom trim of the glove I got the 25mm cream Bias binding, a nice contrast to the green outer fabric but closely matches the inner cream fabirc. (Please note that the bias in the picture below is 12mm and this was definitely too thin for this project. I didn't realise this until after I had taken the picture - sorry)
Ok, Ill stop waffling now and lets get started.

For this project you will need:

1 Fat Quarter (18" x 22") of Outer fabric - I used the green stripe

1 Fat Quarter (18" x 22") of Inner fabric - I used the cream stripe but it looks pinky in some of the pictures)

22" x 19" of thick or insulated wadding

3 stripes 8" long of 25mm Bias binding for the loop and trim  - I used cream

Essentials:

Sewing machine

Scissors

Tailors Chalk/ Fabric Pen

Pins

Thread - I used white.

Iron/ Ironing board


1.  To start, choose 1 fat quarter for your inner fabric and 1 fat quarter for your outer fabric. They can both be the same design if you want but contrasting is good so you always know which is the inner and outer. If you haven't got fat quarters the measurements you will need are approximately 18" by 22".
Cut three 8 inch stripes of the bias binding, 1 for you loop to hang the glove up and the other 2 for the bottom trim of the glove. Iron your fabric and bias.

2.  Create a pattern by drawing around your hand or an existing glove. If you would like my pattern click here, print on A4 and cut around the pattern. It is for quite a small hand as all my gloves in the past had been way too big so this is a nice way to customise it to you. 

3.  Next you want to draw diagonal lines the width of a ruler on the right side of the inner fabric. Using tailors chalk or a fabric pen draw the diagonal lines from one corner of the fabric to the other. Then turn you fabric 90 degrees and draw diagonal lines from that corner to the opposite corner creating diamonds or squares - depending on which way you look at it. Don't worry too much about being too neat as these markings will be on the inside of the glove and you will be sewing over them soon.

4. You now need to layer up your fabric and wadding. First place the outer fabric facing down with the wadding on top and the place the inner fabric facing up. Now pin all the layers together.

5.  Next you need to sew in the direction of the diagonal lines you have just drawn on the inner fabric. First sew in one direction and then rotate to sew in the other direction, forming little padded diamonds. Perhaps if you have used a plain fabric then a contrasting thread would look great and help these stand out but I just went for white thread.

 6.  Now your fabric is ready, using your pattern template pin it to the fabric and cut out two pieces.
TIPS:
  a) Fold the template in half along the arrow and line it up with the points of each diamond and in my case          with the stripes of my pattern, this will ensure the pieces are straight.
  b) When you pin the template to the fabric make sure that the templates are facing the same way, either           both thumbs in or both thumbs out, else the fabrics will not match up when you sew them together.

7.  For the loop piece to hang you glove up, take one of your 8 inch strips of bias binding and sew along the open edge. Then fold the strip in half and iron it down. 

8.  Then take the other two strips of 8 inch bias binding and fold them over the bottom of each glove piece. Pin and sew these into place.

9.  Now to assemble your glove. Place one piece outer fabric facing up, take your loop piece and place it about 2.5 inches from the bottom of the glove. You can put it on either side just make sure a small amount is overlapping. Now place your other glove piece on top with the inner fabric facing up. The loop should now be sandwiched between the two pieces.

10.  Next sew around the glove using a 1/2 inch seam allowance, leaving the bottom open. To tidy up cut into the corner of the thumb slightly, trim any excess seam and any excess bias from the loop or bottom ensuring not to cut into any of the stitches.

11. Turn the glove the right side out and push all the seams out.

Ta-Da! and there you have it, your very own DIY, made to measure oven glove.

I'd like to apologise for the quality of some of the pictures towards the end, I lost natural daylight :-(
I know this has been quite a long post and despite this project having many steps you should definitely give it a go. Great to customise and personalise it just to you or even great as a gift for someone who loves cooking!

There is quite a lot to this project so please feel free to ask me any questions if I haven't quite explained it.

What DIY project would you like to see next? Let me know in the comments below.

Mel xoxo