Every prolific garment maker – you know, the kind who is intent on making her entire wardrobe —  should intermittently indulge in sewing small, happy, scrappy, patchworky, projects. 

My personal take is that it’s advisable to do this, not only for a bit of instant gratification, and a certain euphoric feeling that one gets when one sews with abandon, not stopping to check the fit, mull over a couture seam finish and all that.  This approach works wonders for cleansing one’s sewing palate, a happy change of pace.

Bright colors are psychologically invigorating, so pull out the best and brightest scraps you have.  Over the past years, I’ve made many such projects (in between sewing my closet), and invariably come out refreshed on the other side.  I specifically mentioned scrap projects for such a venture, because if the end result is unappealing or unsuccessful, it can be discarded without regret. They’re scraps, y’all.

So, here’s my most recent quick and happy make: a potholder that looks like a Granny Smith apple!! It’s my first self-made potholder — you’d think that someone sewing for decades would have made at least ONE in all these years. Well, I missed the potholder milestone.  I made this to replace my lonely, old existing one (from Target) was in shreds (be honest, how long do we keep our potholders?). My new one is designed by Charise Randell, made from her instructions in an old issue of “Stitch” magazine, now out of print. 

It’s made with the paper-piecing technique, using scraps from my scrap stash.  The only thing I had to buy (Amazon) was the heat resistant padding called Insul-Bright.

We’ve come to the end of the post, and I hope you enjoyed it. ‘Tis the season to make gifty things and this potholder is a cute stocking stuffer, in my opinion.

Until next time, be safe and sew happy things!

Samina