How to Make an Oven Mitt

An oven mitt, wooden spoon, casserole, and cookbook on a table

Stacy Fisher

Project Overview
  • Total Time: 1 hr
  • Skill Level: Beginner
  • Estimated Cost: $15

A DIY oven mitt is a great way to bring some personalized flair to your kitchen. Besides being a useful accessory to help you hold hot dishes, you can customize the fabric of your oven mitt to match your kitchen design scheme. Use your favorite solid or printed fabric to make one. Since there's a band that goes around the bottom of the oven mitt, think about choosing a coordinating color to get the best look. That way, if you want to hang your oven mitt instead of storing it in a drawer, it will perfectly coordinate with its surroundings. 

This oven mitt should only take you about an hour to make. And it's a great project for a confident beginner, using basic sewing and quilting techniques. It's a wonderful project to practice your sewing skills on. It also could make an excellent personalized gift, especially if you pair it with other handmade kitchen items, such as a potholder or an apron.

What You'll Need

Equipment / Tools

  • Scissors
  • Sewing machine
  • Walking foot
  • Tracing pen or pencil
  • Safety pins or basting spray
  • Sewing pins or clips
  • Pencil or fabric turner
  • Iron and ironing board

Materials

  • Cotton, canvas, or home decor fabric for the outside (2 pieces, 10 inches by 13 inches each)
  • Cotton fabric for the lining (2 pieces, 10 inches by 13 inches each)
  • Insulated batting (2 pieces, 10 inches by 13 inches each)
  • Double-wide bias tape
  • Matching thread
  • Oven mitt pattern template

Instructions

  1. Make a Quilt Sandwich

    Adding some simple quilting to your oven mitt will help to hold everything together and also incorporate some nice detail to the finished mitt. It's easiest to do the quilting before you cut out the oven mitt shape, so you'll be doing your quilting on a rectangular-sized piece of fabric. Don't worry about getting the final look right, it will begin to take shape in later steps.

    You'll first need to make your quilt sandwich. Here's how to layer the fabric and batting:

    1. Lining fabric right side down
    2. Insulated batting shiny side up
    3. Exterior fabric right side up

    It's important to lay the insulated batting with the shiny side up. This will make sure that the batting protects your hand against the heat of the hot pan or dish.

    Baste all your layers together using safety pins or basting spray. Make sure everything is smooth with no wrinkles. It helps to start in the center and work your way out to the edges. Smooth as you go.

    Then, repeat this process to make a second quilt sandwich for the other side of the oven mitt.

    Safety pins basting a quilt sandwich
    Stacy Fisher
  2. Quilt the Layers

    Take your quilt sandwiches to your sewing machine, and machine quilt both of them as desired. You can make your quilting as simple or as detailed as you like. We quilted a straight diagonal line and then used the walking foot as a guide to quilt parallel lines. ​It's a classic quilting design that looks great in any kitchen.

    You'll get the best result if you start your quilting in the middle of the fabric and work your way out. Make sure everything stays smooth while you're quilting. And remember to take the pins out as you come across them.

    Quilting with a sewing machine
    Stacy Fisher
  3. Trace Your Pattern

    Take your two quilted pieces, and place them right sides together. Then, place the oven mitt template (printed at 100%) on top of your fabric, and trace around it. Use some safety pins or basting spray to keep everything together while you're tracing and sewing.

    Tracing and basting the oven mitt
    Stacy Fisher
  4. Sew the Quilt Sandwiches Together

    If you don't have your walking foot attached to your sewing machine yet, you'll want to do that now. These are thick layers, and your machine needs that extra traction to sew over them.

    Sew along the marked oven mitt template line everywhere except for the bottom line. This needs to stay open so your hand can fit through the mitt. Be sure to backstitch at the beginning and the end, so everything stays securely together. Pivot as much as you need to along the curves, moving slowly as you navigate the turns.

    Sewing together the oven mitt
    Stacy Fisher
  5. Cut Out the Oven Mitt

    Remove the pins. Then, cut out your sewn oven mitt, giving yourself a 1/4-inch seam allowance and being careful not to cut through your stitching. You may want to add small clips in the seam allowance along the curves. This will keep everything nice and smoothed once you turn it.

    An oven mitt and a pair of scissors
    Stacy Fisher
  6. Turn and Press

    Turn your oven mitt right side out, using a pencil or fabric turner to get it completely turned. Be patient, using your finger to turn each side of the oven mitt. Give it a good press with your iron to get any wrinkles out. 

    An oven mitt, pencil, and scissors
    Stacy Fisher
  7. Make and Attach the Loop (Optional)

    If you'd like your oven mitt to hang, you can make a simple loop out of bias tape. Cut a 5-inch piece of bias tape, and fold it in half. Pin or clip right sides together at one of the oven mitt seams, raw edges lined up. Sew to attach. 

    A bias tape loop clipped to an oven mitt
    Stacy Fisher
  8. Prepare the Binding

    Cut a 16-inch strip of bias tape. Open the long raw edge of the binding, and place it so it encloses the raw edge of the oven mitt. Start at the seam without the loop (if you made one).

    Use pins or clips to secure the rest of the binding around the bottom of the oven mitt. When you get to the loop, be sure to enclose it along with the bottom of your oven mitt in the binding. When you're done pinning, you'll have some extra binding; just leave that on for now.

    Binding clipped onto an oven mitt
    Stacy Fisher
  9. Attach Your Binding

    Stitch 1/4 inch away from the top of the bias tape all the way around until you get almost to the end, backstitching at the beginning. Be sure to sew around the bottom of the oven mitt; don't sew the bottom of the mitt together. This will be a little tricky, so take your time. If your sewing machine has a detachable base, you may want to look into taking that off so you can sew around more comfortably.

    Stop sewing about 2 inches before you come back to where you started attaching the binding. Cut off the extra bias tape, leaving 1 inch of excess to overlap where you started.

    Open the short end of the bias tape you just trimmed. Fold the raw edge into the binding, and then fold the binding back up. This will give you a nice finished edge. Clip or pin if needed.

    Sewing binding onto an oven mitt
    Stacy Fisher
  10. Finish the Oven Mitt

    Finish sewing on the binding, making sure the finished short end covers the raw edge of the binding where you started. Backstitch to secure.

    An oven mitt lying on a table
    Stacy Fisher