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Thursday, April 9, 2015

Fabric bowls for protecting your favorite pans

Hi all!

I went all out with spring cleaning this year. As in Marie Kondo spring cleaning. It was this huge snow ball, starting with the regular spring routine of going through my fabric scraps, cleaning the closets, unpacking summer clothes etc. And then I ran into her book during an Instagram break and all hell broke loose. Suddenly it hit me - I CAN get rid of all the STUFF I don't like. I don't have to keep it. 

So I started raiding the closets, giving away most of the stuff I don't like just because I don't like it. It took me a few hours to realize most of the items I dislike were never chosen by me. Being the youngest child I always get hand-me-downs: bedding, kitchen stuff, clothes (!), and I have this voice telling me that if I already have something, it must be good enough, why should I replace it?

I agree with this voice most days, but this year I decided some things must be replaced. Starting small, I gave away the two frying pans we have, and replaced them with a good ceramic pan I wanted for the past 5 years.

Our storage solution for pots and pans is something like this:


We use(d) kitchen towels to protect the pans from scratches while they are crammed and stacked in our cupboards. I hate this solution, both because it's messy, and because I really like this owls towel and would like it to be used as a towel, not as a pan protector. So when we got this nice new ceramic pan I thought I could sew a fabric bowl to protect it, instead of this mess.

A short(ish) pinterest search led me to this tutorial from Imagine Fabric, showing how to quickly sew a fabric bowl. I created a "quilt sandwich" with two layers of fabric and cotton batting between them. I used the widest and shortest zigzag stitch for attaching the "petals".

My first go was for our wok, following the instructions as is:





















While it undoubtedly looks better than the towel, it felt a bit sloppy and not sturdy enough. So for the next two bowls I free-motion quilted the layers before creating the 3D shape. I additionally bound the edges instead of using a zigzag stitch. I fought the desire to hand-stitch the binding, as with traditional quilting, convincing myself nobody will ever notice the visible stitches. 










































The bowels are sturdier and hold their shape well without being too stiff, so it's a win! 

Costs:
fabric: a present from a friend's mother
batting: 75 ILS for a meter, used about a 1/4m so, around 20 ILS (~5.08$)
thread: 1 spool, 3.8 ILS (~1$)
*I used an entire spool for the 3 bowels - quilting and tight zigzag stitching uses up a lot of thread.
Total:
~24 ILS = ~6USD

 Happy spring cleaning everyone!


btw - I know a lot of garment sewers don't do home-dec. I always hesitate before writing about home stuff as I do see myself as primarily a garment-sewer. However I do make everything for the home as well, and I find such projects refreshing and interesting when combined with more traditional garment sewing. I am planning a review on the go-to knit pants view B, a pattern I couldn't find a lot about, so stay tuned! (it will not take me 4 months, promise). 

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