As I dash from workshop to workshop I had to create something to keep my hot iron from
melting its way through the rest of my supplies. I’ve got a great tutorial for you. Let’s
get started.
I used Dan Morris’s cool fabric called Cute as a Button by Quilting Treasures because
I love the actual sewing motif to it, right? And the colors are fantastic. And with my
¾ of a yard that I started with I was able to create the little shower cap or the cover
for our iron, a cord keeper. And I even have a cool little double pull drawstring bag that
fit everything. So I can keep it all tidy in my vehicle. And I had a little bit left
over as well. We’re going to focus today’s video just on creating our cover for the hot
iron. And we’re also going to use this wonderful product that is called Insul Bright. And Insul
Bright is a batting basically that has a metallic. Look at this. A metallic inner layer. And
I used two layers while creating my hot iron keeper. And I actually tested this thing and
tested this thing and tested this thing to make sure that it would really be heat resistant
like we need it to be. This stuff is fantastic. So we’re going to need some of that as well.
You can buy it by the yard or a package. Get yourself a yard if you’re working because
we’re using multiple layers, ok?
So we’re going to custom fit this today to your iron. So one of the first things I
want you to do is to take your piece of fabric and we’re going to just basically turn it
right sides in, right? Wrong sides out. And what I want to be able to do fit my iron right
like you see here. But I also want my print to be able to working for me. So right now
I need about a three inch perimeter around my iron to create the cover. And this will
not work this way. So I’m going to fold it the opposite direction so that I have my
prints going up and down for myself. And hopefully now you can see my scissors are lined up with
my iron just like I like. And the easiest thing to do is literally center this, take
out a fine tip sharpie or chalk. But I like a sharpie because it’s going to draw a nice
little line. And then we’re going to lift this up out of the way. And it doesn’t have
to be perfect. We’re just getting ourself an outline. Let the pen ride along the iron
itself, come around here. Because what we really need is we need about a three inch
perimeter. And so make sure you layout so you have enough for your markings there as
you go around. So I’m going to use the very edge here. I’m going to come down and give
myself about a three inch mark down here. I’m going to come out about three inches
from the wide part of my iron here. Eight and 11 is three inches there. And then just
eyeball. I’m just eyeballing it. It’s easy to the edge here. I don’t need to have
a real sharp point here. And again just kind of visually doing this. If you wanted it to
be really, really accurate of course what you’d do at the end is you’d fold it in
half and then cut it. There. Real simple, real simple shape. And then if you take our
your Shark rotary cutter you like or any other rotary cutter. I’m cutting through two layers,
just free cutting this. Through just like that, across the back, and around. Just like
that. Ok.
So at this moment, right? Make sure you put your cap back on the cutter, keep it safe.
We have a couple things we need to discuss. In mine I made a little buttonhole back here.
But I want to pretend like I don’t have a buttonhole capable at home. I want to show
you a little trick. Maybe this is new for all of you. So we’re going to create our
opening first. And we’re going to come down a good, let’s say, inch or so because this
is all going to be folded as our casing. And so what I’m going to first do is I’m kind
of eyeballing. I’m in the center of that back flat place. That’s where my cord is
going to come out. The cord for my bag, not the cord for the iron. And I’ve done about
an inch worth of sewing and back. An inch worth of sewing and back. And I’m going
to do this about five times. And the thread is just slightly laying next to the other
side of the thread, ok? And then I’m going to just simply move my needle up. I’m going
to move it over about the width of my presser foot. And I’m going to back up because I
had started at the beginning and back. So what we’re doing is we’re just finishing
the threads in the fabric. And it’s not going to be beautiful. But it’s certainly
going to work. And if you didn’t have a buttonhole or you just didn’t want to take
the time you could do this. We need to do the short ends too. This is just to keep it
from getting all unraveled over time. Use my thread cutter, that’s what that noise
was. And down here. Ok as I said, it’s not the most beautiful buttonhole in the world
but it will certainly allow us to get that cord right back out of the cover we’re creating.
And that’s the drawcord not the cord for the iron, right? So you don’t need to make
enough for that. So I’m just going to use my Shark to lay a little slot in there. And
we’ll tend to the rest of that later.
Now what we’re going to do is we’re going to go right sides together just like yay.
And I’m going to sew starting with a little bit of the corner all the way around and finish
right here. And I’m just going to do that with my quarter inch seam allowance so I like
to use my edge guide. Put this right in place like that. And this is why I cut both pieces
at once even though it’s custom they are the same sizes. And I just set that backstitch,
come around here for my corner. And I’m just going to go all the way around. I’ll
meet you at the ironing board when I’m done. So we just made our way around there. And
we’ve got a tidy off a little bit of space first. And what we’re going to do is we’re
going to turn this thing right sides out and press it at the same time. So that we then
know what size to cut our Insul Bright. We want our Insul Bright to fit on the inside
seam allowances. You could clip your curves if you wanted to but it’s really not necessary.
We’re just making a real easy little cover here. I’m going to turn that edge back in
while we’re doing it like yay. And then I just kind of like to come through and I’m
just pressing here. Just pressing along. And this will give me the size I need to create
for my heat barrier there. So then for that like I said I want to have two layers, right?
So I’m going to go ahead and make this folded again. But I also need it to fit basically
inside of here without causing much problem. So I’m going to go ahead right now and quickly
trace it real light. And I really don’t want to get this sharpie on my cover because
it’s already turned right sides out. So I’m trying to be really delicate with that
sharpie. As I come around and you can see I’m actually kind of letting the pen be
just slightly underneath the fabric. Because what I’m doing is I’m making it just a
little bit smaller, right? So that’s just a little smaller than the cover was. And then
the other trick was as I go to cut it I’m going to cut on the inside of my line. And
that will effectively make it just a little bit smaller again. I love this new little
rotary cutter obviously I created it so I love it. But it works great for all this freestyle
curves. But you’ll notice I’m also moving the fabric as I’m cutting. That’s just
another little trick. If you haven’t seen my videos on free style applique. It helps
when you’re using this tool. There we go.
Ok, so now I have my Insul Bright all cut to size. And I do not need to do any stitching
or anything to this. We’re literally just going to take it now, fold it. And slide it
inside. And then I’m just going to work it out nice and flat so that I can go ahead
and seal that back edge over. And then all we have to do is create our drawstring casing.
So first I kind of push it all in there. And then I’m going to slowly begin working it
out nice flat. I like to try to both layers at the same time. And I should have told you
to make sure you leave it big enough that you can put your hand inside so you can work
with it nice.
Ok so I’ve gotten all of my Insul Bright flattened out, both layers. And one of the
things I want you to just take a moment and be concerned about is we are going to be running
that drawcord around here. So if you have any lumps in the edges make sure that you
take time to put your hand back there and work them out. And then the next thing we’re
going to do is we’re just going to finish this raw edge, right? So basically I’m going
to topstitch it. I’m going to fold one side over and then I’m going to fold the finished
edge over like this on top of itself, tuck it in, pinch it. And I’m going to go right
to the ironing board. And I’m just going to go a seam all the way across. But I also
want to make sure that I do not accidentally stitch close that little buttonhole escape
we made earlier for our drawcord. And there we have it. Now if you wanted to go all the
way around the bag you certainly could but it’s not necessary. Because what we do need
to do is we do need to move our edge guide out to about a ⅝ or so seam allowance. And
then I’m going to go ahead and move over. And what we’re going to do now is we’re
going to create that casing. And so the bigger or the easier you want your drawcord to go
through the more seam allowance you make, right? Ok and so I’m going to start by stitching
here. I’m going to lock in those threads. And now when I come around, but I need to
be very careful on my corners. I don’t want to seal it closed. So I’m going to pivot.
And at this point you are stitching on the Insul Bright as well. You’re securing the
Insul Bright now and holding it over. So this will help keep it flat over time. And of course
if you wanted to go in and run some quilt layers of stitching and stuff you could. But
again this is just a travel bag. I assume mine will get a little bit soiled quickly
but it did not scar or burn. I was really impressed and I did all kinds of things like
20 minute hot iron tests and stuff. Oh my goodness, you should have seen what I did
to my poor bag to make sure that I could really feel good to recommend this product here.
And we’re just creating that drawcord casing, really easy. Don’t sew your corner closed.
You want to make sure you can rotate through here. And then just find that spot that we
started from. Go ahead and backstitch a few times.
And we have the base and everything already secured and structured for going ahead and
taking our paracord, right? And I’ve got some of this I’ve already taken off, ok?
Make sure you have plenty to go all the way around the bag. Help yourself to a safety
pin. And even though I love those curved safety pins for my quilt basting, a straight safety
pin is going to help us out a bunch. Take that safety pin and go from the outside up
in. And I should have told you I already melted the ends. And I just did that with either
a stove, I did mine with a regular lighter. And then I’m going to run that cord up and
through this casing. And like any good brand new sweatshirt that comes out of the dryer
and you forgot to tie knots in the ends of your hoodie, we’re just going to slowly
work our way through here. As you can see that safety pin made its way out. And I’m
going to go ahead and just pull some of the slack first so I can still lay this nice and
flat. Don’t let your cord get away from you. You’re going to need a couple of cord
locks and like I said I’ll show you that lighter trick here real quick.
What we’re going to do now is give ourselves a few extra inches. I’m going to just cut
it nice and clean. And then what I do is I actually use the blue part of the lighter
down in there to heat it up. And that causes it to start to melt. Let it cool for a second,
pinch that like that. And kids I know you’re watching. I love the fact that I have you
all entertained with my Man Sewing videos but you must ask your parents for help if
you are using that lighter. You know my rules. So here goes my cord lock. Now this one it’s
really tight. So I’m going to pinch it and slide in one. I’m going to pinch it and
slide in the other. Come on now. There we go. Then what I like to do is I like to pull
both cords through, make a little knot towards the end this way. And then what you get to
do is you get to take your iron and fit it in. And then as you snug it up it fits perfect.
Isn’t that awesome like that?
And like I said you have the two layers of the Insul Bright in there. So at the end of
your workshops you literally unplug your iron, let it cool for a second or two. But if you
have to jump right in your car you can put it in here safely. That’s why there’s
enough of this perimeter to go around. And it will literally not burn anything in your
vehicle. It will get nice and warm so be careful. But it will not hurt anything in the car as
you travel. And like I said, I also did this cool small little cord keeper down here. And
I also did a double pull drawstring bag. And I have two fun tutorials for you on those
projects. So we’ve got links at the end of this video, right? Which is coming up very
very soon. I just want to point out real quickly though. For the drawstring bag this dimension
is different than the one in the first tutorial. So all you’re going to do is put your cover
on your iron, measure a few inches past. It was three inches I used on my cut pieces.
So that then the iron will fit in here perfectly when we’re all done. And like I said those
links are right there for you at the end of the video. And love disaster stories. I shouldn’t
admit it. So I want to hear your best disaster story and it can’t be mine. My best disaster
story is this: I once was carrying one of those lightweight tables around in the quilt
guild. And there was this very interesting shape burned right through the middle of it.
And as I’m carrying it, I said to the gal, hey did you have an ironing accident? And
she said, how did you know? We’ll see you next time at Man Sewing.
Thanks for being a Man Sewing fan. It’s great to have you out there encouraging me
to create fantastic new content. If you’ve missed any of the videos we’ve got links
for you here and here. And when you’re checking those out make sure you’re subscribed. We
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