Chenille Hot Pad, Day 7

I decided that I wanted to add a feature to the hot pads that wasn't part of the original pattern.  The hot pads didn't have a way to hang them, so I added a loop to each one.  The loops didn't need to be very wide, so I thought this would be a great opportunity to try out another tool that's been collecting dust - the bias tape maker!  A bias tape maker is an awesome little tool that folds the edges of your fabric strips to the center of the strip.  It saves a lot of time and aggravation, and it also saves your pretty little fingers from being burned by your iron.

They come in a variety of sizes.  My good friend (who I'll refer to as "La Reine"), the one that also gave me the serger, gave me two tape makers, one to make 2" tapes, and another to make 1/2" tapes.  I used the smaller one to make the loops.  Then I stitched them onto the pads before adding the binding.

I went with the pattern's measurement of 2 1/4" wide for the binding strips.  Since the strips were not going around curves, I cut them with the grain, as opposed to cutting them on the bias.  Then I stitched them end to end to make one long strip.

If you make your own binding, when you bring the ends of two pieces of fabric strips together, you have sew them at a 45 degree angle.  That way, when you sew them to your project, there aren't big bumps of fabric from where the binding strip seams meet.

I'm not sure why I did this, but after I quilted all the pads, I switched out the walking foot for the regular foot.  Wait, now I remember.  I had to stitch up the loops and the binding strips.  Argh.  Take 2.

I'm not sure why I did this, but after I stitched up all the binding strips, I didn't switch out the regular foot for the walking foot.  It would have made it a lot easier to stitch the binding strips to the hot pads.  I realized this halfway through the second hot pad, but didn't think it really mattered.  Looking back, I should have switched over to the walking foot.  Basically, I should use the walking foot whenever I sew more than two layers.

Now that the pads have been binded, it's time to wash them to create the chenille.  When they came out of the dryer, I was kinda surprised by what I saw.  All of the straight-cut chenille pads had bunches of frays, while the diagonal-cut chenille didn't have even one loose thread!  Looking back on the cutting stage, I realized that while the straight-cut pads had tons of thread coming off, the diagonal one didn't have any.  I guess that's one reason to cut on the bias!

Diagonal-cut on left, straight-cut on right.

And let's not forget my experiment!  Just to remind you:

Hot Pad #1, Six Layers       > Backing, Insul-Bright, Four Chenille
Hot Pad #2, Seven Layers   > Backing, Insul-Bright, Five Chenille
Hot Pad #3, Seven Layers   > Backing, Insul-Bright, Batting, Four Chenille
Hot Pad #4, Eight Layers    > Backing, Insul-Bright, Batting, Five Chenille
Hot Pad #5, Eight Layers    > Backing, Batting, Insul-Bright, Batting, Four Chenille

Before.

After.

I washed the pads several times, but the chenille didn't seem to improve with the additional washings.  I ended up trimming off a lot of loose threads.  Tying up loose ends, you might say.
The additional layers of fabric didn't seem to make much improvement on the looks of the chenille, and they also didn't seem to impact how long I could hold a hot cookie sheet.  Overall, the additional layers, either fabric or batting, didn't provide that much more protection from the heat.  However, the Insul-brite worked well to begin with; I was able to hold that cookie sheet for a few minutes, way longer than the few seconds of pain that I endure when holding a cookie sheet with the Mickey Mouse gloves.

I finished the hot pads before midnight, so my record has improved to 2-3!  Hooray!