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Learning how to make a potholder using your handy-dandy Punch Needle can come in handy for several nifty reasons. But let’s start with one basic one; you’ve gotta set that hot stuff on something!
Having the ability to know how to make a potholder can open up a lot of creative opportunities too. Why, you could come up with your very own line of cutesy potholders for you and your friends! Let the floodgates of silly potholder ideas open, and let’s make this a super fun DIY. With Punch Needle fun, the possibilities are endless; that’s why we believe Punch Needle can be for anyone!
Now, let’s get into the meat and potatoes, or shall we say the yarn and the hoops, of this awesome tutorial on how to make a potholder.
Perfect Uses for Homemade Potholder
A house can always use another potholder, sometimes there doesn’t seem to be enough, right?! Here are a few more perfect reasons why homemade potholders can come in pretty handy and why you may want to learn how to make a potholder.
- Lovely homemade gift
- Dinner prep & serving
- French Press/Moka Coffee Pot/Coffee Pot, potholder (This is what you’ll be seeing in the DIY!)
- Camping/Cabin specific potholders
- Travel potholder for Picnics, hiking, and more
Open up that crafting drawer and crank up your craft-room tunes; we’re getting into the supplies you’ll need for your how to make a potholder DIY adventure.
How to Make a Potholder Supplies
Steps on How to Make a Potholder
Before we get into how to make a potholder, it’s important to note a few vital things.
- Potholders come in a variety of shapes and sizes; feel free to change your size while you follow along on how to make a potholder. Your size will depend on how big of an Embroidery Hoop you choose to use.
- Once your potholder is complete, when it gets dirty, we suggest lightly spot-cleaning it.
Now that we’ve got our important messages out of the way let’s dive and learn how to make a potholder! Check out our Punch Needle page for tips, tricks, and guidance.
Step One: Choose Your Design & Prepare Your Embroidery Hoop
Before you can set sail on how to make a potholder, you’ll need a pattern to follow! This is a super fun step because you get to pick not only the Punch Needle pattern you want to create but also pick out all the colors you want to use and get your Embroidery Hoop all ready to go.
Need help to decide on a design? We’ve got you covered!
Potholder Design Ideas
Below, we’ve provided a handful of free Punch Needle patterns that may fit perfectly for your homemade potholder. You can either use a bright screen as a makeshift lightbox to trace your design onto your Monk’s Cloth, or you can also use a bright window.
Start making your own free Punch Needle patterns by using Canva! Our suggestion is to choose an image with thick lines so that it is easier to trace onto your Monk’s Cloth.
Once you have your design picked out, it’s time to cut out your Monk’s Cloth (leave a few-inch border of extra Monk’s Cloth that you cut out for your Embroidery Hoop) and get it ready.
A tip for those pesky stray threads of Monk’s Cloth is to use painter’s tape and tape around the borders! After you’ve placed the painter’s tape on, you can get your Monk’s Cloth nice and taut in your Embroidery Hoop. It’s extremely important that the cloth is tight throughout your DIY. If it’s loose, your loops and punches won’t have a chance to stay in.
For this DIY on how to make a potholder, we’re going to be working from the back side of the Embroidery Hoop. This is so the looped side, or the fuzzy side, is our presenting side. And the flat stitch side will be the work we cover up in the end.
With that being said, go ahead and flip your Embroidery Hoop over and use your fabric marker (or sharpie) to trace/draw your design onto the Monk’s Cloth.
Alternatives to a lightbox for tracing are a bright screen (e.g.: Laptop) or using a bright, sunny window.
Step Two: Start Punching From Smallest to Largest Details
An important Punch Needle tip that we’ve learned along the way, besides knowing how to thread a Punch Needle, is that it’s best to start with the smallest details first and work your way out.
This is because the small details can be harder to punch in when the larger ones, such as the background, are overwhelming your Embroidery Hoop. Plus, it’s easier to make your details thicker if need be than to try and punch through a thick and mighty background. This tip translates to just about any Punch Needle project you’re working on, whether it’s how to make a potholder or a Punch Needle Pizza Garland!
For the pattern we’ve chosen in our how to make a potholder we’re starting with the small detail of steam coming from the coffee cup.
Now that the steam is all punched in, we can move on to the coffee that should be tagging along! For whichever design you choose, it’s nice to start with the smallest detail in your pattern and then move on to the next biggest and so forth.
Step Three: Continue Punching Larger Details of Your Design
Wow, look at you learning how to make a potholder; you’re practically halfway there! Now that your smaller details have been punched in, you and continue on with your larger ones.
The final detail for our how to make a potholder design is the background! Go ahead and choose a background color that works best with the colors you’ve chosen.
Huzzah! Your background is punched in and looking amazing, we’re almost done learning how to make a potholder!
Step Four: Adjust Loops & Snip Off Yarn Tails
Remember when I said you’d have a chance to adjust those little loops that got a little smushed around? Now’s your time to shine!
With an unthreaded Punch Needle, use the tip of it to move around your loops so they form back to the shape you want them. It’s actually quite satisfying.
After the loops are adjusted, and you’re happy with your future potholder, you can snip off any remaining yarn tails. Because next, we’ll be backing your design out of the hoop!
Step Five: Remove Painter’s Tape & Cut Monk’s Cloth
You can now take your design out of the Embroidery Hoop and remove the painter’s tape. Some strands of Monk’s Cloth will come off during the tape removal, but that’s alright!
Before starting this step, go ahead and plug in your Hot Glue gun so it’s ready to go by the time you’re done.
We’re in the home stretch of completing how to make a potholder; get those handy-dandy crafting scissors out again because we’ve got some snipping to do!
Cut around your piece, but leave some space, like in the picture below.
Keep those scissors near, now you’ll want to make slits into your Monk’s Cloth all the way up to your yarn. Be careful not to snip at the yarn, but just close enough that it’s right up to it.
Step Six: Hot Gluing & Finishing
And here we are, the last step in learning how to make a potholder. You’re such a crafting champ!
Once your Hot Glue Gun is warm and ready to go, you can begin gluing down the Monk’s Cloth tabs to the flat stitch side of your potholder. Remember, fuzzy side up!
Now that your Monk’s Cloth is securely glued to the flat stitch side of your potholder, you can glue on the backing. For our backing, we’re using felt fabric.
Cut out a square of your backing, giving yourself a little wiggle room by cutting around your potholder after gluing.
We suggest using your Hot Glue Gun and gluing the center of the backside of your potholder and firmly pressing it down on your backing.
After that, you can take your time with Hot Gluing and pressing the backing firmly until the entire potholder is Hot Glued to the backing.
Fabulous! We’re almost done learning how to make a potholder; how exciting! After your glue has dried and every part of your potholder is firmly on the backing, you can cut the extra fabric off.
Shabam, that’s how you make a potholder, and you completed it like the majestic crafting champ you are.
As mentioned above, this potholder we’ve created during our how to make a potholder tutorial was made specifically to hold a Monka Pot/French Press because they can get quite hot. Here are some examples of the size, and we hope you’ve learned how to make a potholder that works perfectly for you and your home!
Look out hot pots, bowls, and everything warm; here come some amazing potholders! We genuinely hope you’ve had a blast learning how to make a potholder and that you have lots more Punch Needle fun in the future.
Say, ever wanted to learn how to make a Punch Needle coaster? Now you can!