Monday, October 10, 2011

Ugly Oven Mit Fix

I'm about to admit something I've been ashamed of for awhile......
                         
                                    I have ugly potholders!

If there are any small children in the room with you, distract them before you scroll down to the next picture. These are my potholders. Here is their story.

This is the best-looking of the bunch.  When I began rooting around in my hot-pad drawer asking for volunteers for a fabulous make-over, all the truly cringeworthy, sweet-spirit-types shoved this doozy to the front.  This is the belle of the ball, this is what comes out when family is over for dinner.

When company is over, I hate to admit it, but I lie.  I lie and lie and I think it come across pretty convincing.  Lady visitor will say something like, "I just put brownies in while you were in the other room... All I need is an oven mit to grab the searing hot pan with."

"Well,"  I say, "We're not really a potholder kind of family.  I think it's good form to just grab the pots real quick-like."  This is the point in the story where I am forced to either admit I do indeed own ugly potholders or... and I am the stubborn type... I open up that oven door and I GRAB.   This method of hiding your ugly potholders from guests serves the dual purpose of keeping your pride intact, while also killing every germ your fingertips could be harboring and also irradicating those pesky fingertips.

This week we have quite a few dinner parties planned and I am out of finger flesh, SOOOO, I'm going to recover my potholders

I'm not making brand new ones, because what are these contraptions even made out of?  Some kind of stuffed, flame retardant stuff that they sell in the fireman section of the fabric store....?  We will simply make a pillow case cover for these embarassers.

       Short aside here, you may skip on ahead if you'd like. My grandma once made my mom a homemade oven mit. Save this kind of gift for people you hate. We had that oven mit for years and it was the one you wanted to avoid, but it is also the one that probably trained me for my "grab and curse" method of pan removal.  Grandma had used quilt batting or something not designed for scorch prevention--  350 degrees would go right through this puppy before you could scream, "Cheese and Rice!"  But, the kicker was that there was no stuffing in the thumb. Grandma had said that all that pesky stuffing (the stuff that keeps you from getting blisters) made it difficult to turn the potholder right side out, so she just removed it.


step one: trace generous pattern of your oven mit.



Step two: stitch right sides together. Flip.

Looking better already, hunh?  Slip new cover over old eye-sore. Fold over rough bottom edge and sew down.

You can add a ruffle.



I'm not so embarrased anymore.

6 comments:

Traci said...

oh my goodness... I am so embarassed about my pot holders! They are so gross. I need to do this so bad! They turned out great!

Liz @ Here's to Handy Andy said...

Brilliant! If only I could sew...

Kim said...

totally doing this! Thanks for the inspiration!

Likely said...

brilliant! hot oads from scratch was totally on my list. I don't have mitts, but I have pads --- pickygirl, do you think I could do something with those too?

Kari said...

Ok so I am shamelessly plugging your blog today by giving you the Versatile Blogger Award! I tried to email you but couldn't find your email. So go to my blog to check it out: agracefull-life.blogspot.com and there you will get the details!!
Congrats!!

Kari

PeggyJean said...

wow these turned out great! Thanks for sharing and thanks for letting me know about 'crafting from the sidelines'! I really love your blog!