Oven Gloves Tutorial 43

I’m so excited to share one of my favorite projects with you today. I have made these so many times because they are just perfect for gifting as well as brightening up my own kitchen. I love to gift practical yet still beautiful gifts, so these are a perfect for reminding someone every time they cook that you were thinking of them. They come together in a happy afternoon of stitching and can even be scaled down to make a mini pair for the kids! Perfect for a toddler play kitchen or for supervised cooking time together with older children. I’ll walk you through how I like to make them, and the best part? You don’t need to download any fancy patterns if you want to have a go at making some too, because I’ll be showing you how to do that too.

Want to sew along? Fantastic! I have a full sewing tutorial video for you. Or, if you prefer, just scroll on past it and you’ll find full step-by-step instructions.

What You’ll Need:

• Paper, Pencil, Ruler & Scissors for making the pattern
• Cotton Fabric
• Cotton Thread
• Cotton Bias Binding – About 3 metres/10ft
• Insulating Wadding – I’m using Sew Simple brand.
• Sewing Machine

Useful to have but not essential:

• A presser foot better suited to sewing over thick fabric such as a thick fabric foot, walking foot or teflon foot
• A free-motion darning presser foot if you want to quilt curved patterns more easily.
• An overcast foot to stitch more easily over the fabric edge
• You may find bias binding easier to attach with a bias binding presser foot.
• Quilt basting spray – Or alternately use plenty of pins and quilt carefully!

How To Make An Oven Glove Pattern

I like to keep things simple, so I’m drawing out a really simple shape to use – no downloads needed! I like to use the kind of wrapping paper that has 1cm squares drawn all over the back so it’s a nice big pattern drawing area and you get perfect straight lines every time using them to draw along.

I measure out a big rectangle – 45 cm by 18 cm (that’s roughly 18 inches by 7 inches). If your fabric doesn’t have a specific direction, like a solid color or a randomly scattered pattern, then you can assume one short end is where you will cut your fabric on the fold. But since I’m using a directional fabric with adorable cats that need to be the right way up, I’ve just added a little seam allowance at the end, about half a centimeter (or a quarter of an inch) or so, and cut two pieces that I can join together instead. That way it doesn’t matter which way around I hand my oven mitts up on the oven, the kitties will still be the right way up.

For the other short end I want to curve the corners to give the oven gloves that nice, rounded shape at the bottom. To do it, I like to fold the fabric in half lengthwise then both sides will be identical. Since freehand drawing is harder to get a perfect curve, I just use the curve of a plate as a guide. I trace a smooth sweep along the last 6 cm (or 2 inches) of the pattern, trim it off, and unfold it. And just like that, the basic shape is done!

For the oven mitt pockets, where your hands go, I like to take a little pattern shortcut. On the main pattern piece I just made, I mark about 20 cm (or 7 ½ inches) up from the curved end, then fold the rest of the pattern out of the way. That way I can use the same piece for both my pockets and main fabric pattern!

If you’re making a kid-sized pair, I’d scale it down to a 27 cm by 12 cm rectangle (about 10 ½ by 4 ½ inches), with a pocket that’s 14 cm (or 5 ½ inches) deep. It’s such an easy way to customize the size.

Adult Oven Glove Pattern:

Children’s Oven Glove Pattern:

Cutting Out The Fabric

Here’s what I cut out:

• Front & back pieces of cotton for the main part of the gloves – I have 4 pieces of cotton because I’ll be joining the middle. If you cut on the fold you should have 2 pieces. I like to cut these a little generously as it makes it easier to quilt and just trim back to the wadding size after.
• 1 piece of insulating wadding for the main part of the gloves (cut on the fold).
• 4 pocket-sized pieces of insulating wadding – 2 of them are for adding extra heat resistance to the main part where your hands will be holding hot pots and tins, and the other 2 are to insulate the back of the pocket just in case you catch the back of your hand on the oven side.
• 4 cotton pocket pieces (these don’t need to be cut generously, just cut them the same as the wadding.) – These will make the front and back for each pocket back.

How To Make Oven Glove Pockets

I like to start with the pockets because they’re quick and then they’re ready to add as soon as the main part of the oven mitts are done. For each pocket, I layer the 2 pieces of cotton with the pretty sides facing outwards, with the insulating wadding in the middle like a sandwich (fluffy side facing up towards the side you want as the pocket outside). Some people like to quilt theirs first but I prefer the look without and find that quilting really isn’t essential here, so I just stitch the edges to hold the pieces in the perfect position to bind later. I pop an overcast foot on my machine and using cotton thread, I sew a zigzag stitch all the way around the edges of both pockets.

Next, I grab some cotton bias binding and add a straight line of it along the top edge of each pocket, sandwiching the pocket in the center of the binding and sewing a quick straight stitch across. If you aren’t confident using bias binding, it can help to use a bias binding foot as a guide, or to iron a centre fold into your bias binding first so it’s easier to keep the fabric perfectly central inside.

Afterwards, I just trim off any extra binding past the fabric edge, and that part’s done. Don’t worry about the raw edges on the sides—we’ll finish those later, and they’ll be hidden inside the final binding.

How To Reinforce & Assemble the Main Part Of The Oven Gloves

Before I add any cotton to the main part, I like to reinforce the insulating wadding around the pocket areas with those extra pocket-sized wadding pieces. I lay the main piece of wadding fluffy side up, then place a pocket-sized piece of wadding on top of each end, also fluffy side up. Why fluffy side up you might be wondering? Because this wadding traps air inside that fluff so I think it makes them a little better at withstanding heat if I layer them like this way.

I just stitch them in place with a regular straight stitch all around the edge. To make this easier, I use a thick fabric foot—it glides over the wadding so smoothly! A walking foot or Teflon foot works great too, or you can use a regular foot if you’re careful. If your machine lets you adjust the presser foot pressure, lowering it a bit can help if you’re using a regular presser foot.

Next up, I join the cotton pieces for the main part. This bit isn’t needed if you cut yours out on the fold, but as I’m using directional fabric, I’m sewing mine together in the middle, making sure the cats will be facing the right way up when they are hung up on the oven from the middle.

I like to finger-press the seam open after to get it nice and flat. I prefer to open the seam rather than press it to one side so that when I’m layering everything up it spreads the centre bulk out a bit better which helps when I come to bind it.

How To Quilting The Oven Glove Main Section

To keep all the layers of the main section in place, I like to quilt them together. If I didn’t, the cotton would just want to sag away from the centre which wouldn’t be ideal as it flops down into your hot stew! To make it easier, I like to use a bit of quilt basting spray to hold everything in place. I layer it with cotton at the bottom (pattern side down), wadding in the middle (fluff and reinforced areas facing the side you want on the outside, then the other cotton piece on top with the pattern facing up. I give it a light spray between each layer. It means I don’t have to cover it in pins to keep it in place, which I hate doing because no matter how careful I try to be, I always end up spiking myself on one I didn’t see to remove when I quilt. To get the best position on the top layer of cotton, I like to line up the centre seam with the bottom cotton piece first, then smooth it out from the center. It doesn’t matter so much on your position if you cut your cotton on the fold as long as it covers the insulating wadding. When I’m happy with my positioning, I just add clips all the way around the edges to keep that position really secure.

For the quilting, I like to use a free-motion darning foot. I start by pulling the bobbin thread up to the top of the fabric and holding it out of the way as I begin sewing – that stops the loose end accidentally getting caught up and looking like a bird’s nest of a mess underneath. Then I like to follow the lines of my fabric pattern. This fabric is perfect for just following the wavy lines with my stitches all the way across. You could do straight lines or even stitch fun shapes with contrasting thread if you’re using plain fabric—I think that’d look so cute! For this cat print, though, I didn’t want to stitch right through their little faces, so the wavy lines felt more playful and accents the kitties more. I like to sew my lines of quilting close enough to hold everything in place but not so close that I flatten the wadding too much. Remember how I said that fluffy surface on the wadding traps air? Well, if you flatten it with really dense stitching, it could let more heat through.

I find it best to take my time with this part, keeping the stitching speed consistent. This helps me keep the stitch length as even as I can. It might look a bit scruffy around the sides at this point, but don’t worry, it’s easy to tidy it up!

I just trim that cotton back to the wadding edges to make all the layers line up perfectly, which makes the next steps so much easier. I use scissors around the curved ends, but a rotary cutter is perfect for getting the sides quickly straightened up.

How To Attach The Oven Mitt Pockets

To attach the pockets, I clip them to each end then sew a line of stitching all around the very edge of both the main piece and the pockets. In case you’re wondering why I don’t just sew the pockets on, I like to make sure that every bit of fabric is fully secured in place before I bind it. That way, it stops the underneath fabric layers from folding over without me noticing, which can be such a faff to fix if they manage to escape the binding later. So by stitching it all in, I can check my edges first and know that it’ll all behave when I’m binding! By using a straight stitch right near the edge, it won’t be visible at the end because it’ll be hidden inside the bias binding.

How To Bind The Oven Gloves

Now for the final touch – binding the edges! I like to start with a tail of my cotton binding that I clip in place but don’t stitch down. That way it makes joining the ends easier when I get back around. I also find that it’s easiest to start somewhere mid-body, not on a pocket. With that binding wrapped right around the fabric edge, I sew a regular straight stitch all the way around. I take my time on those curved edges to keep my positioning, and I find that giving the binding a gentle pull as I go helps it keep it lying perfectly flat around those curves.

When I get back to where I started, I stop short, leaving about 5 to 10 cm (or an inch or two) gap. I hold the two bias ends together to find the point where they’ll meet so I know that this is the point where I want my joining stitching to go for the binding to sit flat. Don’t be tempted to give it extra. There’s a slight stretch to bias binding and baggy binding doesn’t look good, so it needs to be a snug fit. I fold my oven glove fabric so I can flip my binding back to back to be able to sew it right sides together. That way it’ll hide the join. I like to put a pin where I want my stitch line will be, then add a pin on either side to hold the binding in place as I sew. Once I’ve lined that centre pin up underneath the sewing machine, I can pull that one out and sew a quick stitch forward and backward to join it. I trim back the excess binding, then I like to finger-press open my bias binding join on the seam. I find it easier to get a flatter finish. Once I’m sure all the edges are tucked up inside the binding, I just sew a straight stitch right over the joint to secure it in place on the oven gloves.

The puffy wadding can make the binding want to curl up and away from the fabric, which I don’t love the look of, so I add one more step. I zip around the edge of the binding with a quick zigzag stitch—it holds everything neatly in place and stops the binding from rolling back. It’s such a small touch that’s completely optional, but I much prefer the look of the flat binding edge.

Then it’s all done and ready to use or gift!

And there you have it! What do you think? Would you make one? Or maybe a few to gift? Here’s all the many I’ve made over the years!

I’d love to hear how yours come out if you give this project a try.

Happy sewing!