September 10, 2008

Crochet Trivet

Because I don't have enough projects lined up and spend too much time "researching" on the internet, I decided to try making a potholder/trivet out of thrifted sheets. I found several examples and instructions for crocheted fabric rag rugs on the internet and thought the idea would work well on a smaller scale. I bought a flat queen and twin sheet at Goodwill. They're kind of ugly, but I figured the colors would work in my kitchen.


I tried crocheting a strip, but I hated the way it looked with all the exposed raw edges, threads, and wrong side of the fabric showing. So with what should have been a fairly simple project, I decided to make it a major production by cutting wider strips, sewing all my strips together with a bias seam, using my Clover bias tape maker to make double fold fabric tape, and rolling it into a huge ball of fabric.



I started out ironing the folded fabric. It took way too long, but would probably work pretty well with a crafting buddy to help. I decided to just roll the folded fabric into a ball as I pulled it through the tape maker. That worked well unless I pulled too much fabric through at once. The pin held the fabric in place. Otherwise, the whole ball started unraveling. At this point, my husband thought I was completely nuts having spent much of my day off working on this. He really thought I was nuts when I told him my plans for my huge fabric ball. But like any good husband, he just walked away from the crafting madness.

Now I could finally begin crocheting! The first two rows were a pain in the butt, but after I got going it wasn't too bad. I wanted a trivet bigger than the typical potholder--something that would work well under a cookie sheet or baking pan. Currently we use up most of our potholder supply making one big potholder for these larger items. It crocheted up pretty fast. I was able to make this trivet during the first half of last Saturday's Nebraska game. My husband is pretty supportive of the things I make and often has suggestions to make my projects better. This is one item that he was truly impressed with and was very excited when he got to keep it since much of my crafting ends up as gifts for somebody else. I think I'll try this again and make some for my sister in law and mother in law for Christmas. The next projects will be made of fabric I like since there's too much time invested in the prep using fabric that's just okay. Thanks for looking and any comments/suggestions are always appreciated!















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