Casserole Holder Tutorial

I will preface this post by warning you all that it is long!  But, there are a lot of pictures.  Since this is my first semi complicated tutorial, I wanted to be as thorough as possible so I took a ton of pictures and I will try to explain it all as clearly as I can! 

This weekend I made another casserole holder.  This one was for my mom and was part of her Christmas present as I mentioned before.  I got the initial idea from this pin.  Which led me to the original tutorial which is found at this blog.  Now, I’m not an expert on the sewing machine so I thought I would create this tutorial for anyone else who is beginning just like me.

First things first, here are the materials you will need:

1 Yard of InsulBright – It’s sold in bulk, usually with the batting type material and the label looks like this

2 Yards of fabric – Now, for me I did two different patterned fabrics, so I used 1 yard of each.  So, you will need either 2 yards of the same fabric or 1 yard each of two different fabrics, make sense?

2 yards of canvas handle material – I found mine over by the “by the yard” Velcro and things.  It comes in a few different colors and looks like this

Color coordinated thread – Just normal thread, no special type needed

Measuring tape – I used my husbands, but if you have the fabric/sizing kind, that works too.

Some sort of closure – Be it buttons, or Velcro, or ribbon to use as ties

Let’s get started! 

Step 1:  Layout your InsulBright and cut out a 37” by 12” rectangle and a 30” by 15” rectangle.  So one should be shorter and wider, and the other longer and skinnier.

Step 2: Place the two rectangles of InsulBright on top of your fabric.  If you are using two types of fabric, you will need to cut one of each size rectangle out of each type of fabric.   When you cut out the fabric, cut about a 1 inch outline around the InsulBright.  This doesn’t need to be exact.

You should end up with your two pieces of InsulBright, a 37”x12” and 30”x15” piece of fabric 1, and a 37”x12” and 30”x15” piece of fabric 2 (if using two different pieces of fabric, otherwise you will have 4 pieces out of the same fabric)

Step 3:  Take your two 37”x12” pieces of fabric and place them right sides together.  So it should look like its inside out.  Then place your 37”x12” piece of InsulBright and place it on top of those.  Like so

Step 4:  Sew these 3 pieces together (straight stitch).  Make sure to leave a 4” or so gap on one of the 12” sides so that you can turn it right side in.  

Step 5:  Repeat step 4 with the 30”x15” pieces.  You should have two pieces like this. I cut off the excess material.  If you do this, make sure to leave some excess material where your 4" gap is.

Step 6:  Now you turn each piece right side in. Reach in between the two pieces of fabric, and turn it right side in.

Step 7:  Next you will do what’s called a top stitch all the way around.  This is really the same thing that you did the first time around (just a straight stitch) except that this one will be visible.  It kind of makes it look like there is piping around the edge.  The purpose of this is to make sure all of the layers stay together and the InsulBright doesn’t shift and bunch.  The top stitch also closes that 4” gap that we left when we turned it outside in.  Now your two pieces look like this

Step 8:  Now we want to sew the two pieces together.  Lay the 30”x15” down horizontally (placing the side you want to show on the outside face down).  Then lay the 37”x12” down vertically on top of that (again placing the side you want to show on the outside face down).  Make sure that you measure the sides and that you have the top piece centered.  And pin those together.

Be sure to double check with a real casserole dish to make sure all the sides will close before you sew it together.

Step 9:  Sew the two pieces together.  You should end up with a square in the center.

Step 10:  You’re almost done!  Now we just need to attach the handles and the closures.  To attach the handles lay them in a loop along the backside of the 30”x15” piece like so

Step 11:  Pin the handles down, and mark about 3” to either side of the center square.  This is where you will stop sewing the handles.

Step 12: Sew on the handles

Step 13: Now you get to decide what kind of closure you want.  I used buttons and loops on my first one (I don’t know how to sew buttons holes yet).  In the tutorial I linked to at the top of this post, she used Velcro which is probably the easiest.  You can find sew on Velcro at Joanns (make sure you get the kind made for sewing) .  You can refer to the tutorial I linked to above to see how she sewed on the Velcro. 

And that’s it!  You are done!  These make great gifts and they definitely get easier the more you make.  Please feel free to leave comments and questions!  And if you end up making one yourself, tell me about it, I would love to know!