Snowman Pot Holder Sewing Pattern

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This adorable Snowman Pot Holder Sewing Pattern will look great in your kitchen this holiday season or use this free snowman pattern to make useful and cute Christmas gifts.

This adorable Snowman Pot Holder Sewing Pattern will look great in your kitchen this holiday season or use this free snowman pattern to make useful and cute Christmas gifts. #snowmanpotholder #freepotholderpattern #freesewingpatterns #christmasgifts #makeyourown 

Snowman Potholder Sewing Pattern

Are you starting to get excited yet? Love it or hate it, winter is coming and Christmas will be here soon. It’s time to work on some holiday projects. Are you going ‘all out’  this year, or looking for just a few subtle touches at home? Either way, this snowman insulated pot holder will be a perfect and practical part of your holiday decor.

Even if your family doesn’t celebrate Christmas, he’ll still look great in winter colors, such as white, blue and silver. A sparkling snowflake background would look amazing too. This snowman potholder pattern adapts well to any size, so you can make a potholder, a placemat, a mug rug or a whole table runner from this idea with just a few adjustments.

Materials for a Snowman Pot Holder Sewing Pattern

Materials to make one large potholder:

  • 4 strips from a festive jelly roll or 4 strips of fabric – 2.5 inches wide by 42 inches long (Get it from Fabric.com)
  • Small pieces of white, black, and orange
  • Fusible web such as Heat N Bond Lite
  • Square of backing fabric – 10 x 10 inches
  • Embroidery thread in black
  • 1.25 yards of 2 inch binding strip or bias tape
  • Thermal insulating lining – Insul-Bright or similar, cotton batting, or even an old towel
  • The snowman applique pattern – download the pattern here

How to sew your Snowman Pot Holder

How to Sew a Snowman Pot Holder

–New to sewing? Check out my 7 Sewing Must-Haves List before you get started!

1. Take your fabric strips, either from your jelly roll or cut them from yardage. Cut each strip in half length-ways so you end up with 8 strips of fabric, each 1.25 inches wide by 42 inches.

2. Sew them all together along the long sides, alternating the colors however you like, using a 1/4 inch seam. A 1/4 inch quilting foot is useful but not essential. Give the resulting long strip a good press, pressing the seams all in the same direction.

Putting together a Snowman Pot Holder

3. If you have a quilting ruler you can use that. If not, simply cut a square of paper in half across the diagonal to find a 45 degree angle. Use your angle to cut off the end of the strip so that you start with a 45 degree angle at one end.

4. Measure along 9.5 inches from the point. Make a mark and use your angle or ruler to cut the fabric so that it forms a triangle shape, like the one shown above.

5. Repeat again, measuring 9.5 inches from the point, mark and cut a 45 degree angle. This time your fabric will be cut in the opposite direction. The strip that was on the short side last time, will be on the long side this time. Repeat twice more until you have 4 pieces.

Making a Snowman Pot Holder

6. Match two of the pieces that have opposite colors and stitch one diagonal with a 1/4 inch seam. Repeat for the other two pieces then join both sides together to create a square. Give the seams a good press.

7. Print out your snowman applique pattern, and trace the shapes onto the paper side of your fusible web.

Placing the Snowman on Your Pot Holder

8. Fuse the applique shapes to the wrong side of your fabrics. White for the face and body of the snowman, a nice bright color for his scarf and gloves, black for his hat and a tiny piece of orange for his carrot nose.

9. Cut out all of the shapes carefully. Now layer all the pieces in the correct order onto the fabric square. Use your iron to fuse all of the shapes in place.

10. Carefully stitch around the edges of your applique with a satin stitch, small zig-zag stitch, or a blanket stitch. You might find it useful to use a stabilizer on the reverse, or simply slide a piece of regular printer paper underneath to stop it from catching on all the seams.

11. Transfer the pattern markings for the eyes and the mouth onto the face shape and carefully stitch them with black embroidery floss. If you want black buttons on his front, do these too.

Cute Snowman Pot Holders

12. Cut a piece of backing fabric the same size as your finished block. I recommend a darker fabric that won’t show any cooking splashes or something with a busy pattern. Now layer your fabric, the backing right side down, then one or two layers of your insulation material and lastly your snowman on top. Trim and baste around the edges to keep everything lined up.

13. Bind all 4 edges with your binding strip and add a loop in one corner to hang. You can also leave the loop off to use him at the table or as a surface protector.

Finished Snowman Pot Holder

Your snowman potholder is ready to show off and use! The potholder pattern is scalable, so I also made a slightly larger one without the hanging loop which I’ll use on the table to put hot dishes on. You can also make several and join them together to make a table runner or make them more rectangular for placemats. Those strips are a fun way to create a background.

–Get some coordinating fabric to make an easy, Ten Minute Table Runner

If you want more festive sewing ideas, here are a few projects to get you started, including a mate for the snowman with the penguin pot holder! Check out this awesome recipe for Christmas Brunch Casserole so you can get free time away from the kitchen on Christmas morning and still be a domestic goddess. And these Frosty Beeswax Candles take just a few minutes to make for a beautiful winter accent to complete your holiday table.

Will you be making these potholders for yourself or to give as a gift?

debybio

This Free Potholder Sewing Pattern was originally published on Little House Living in November 2014. It has been updated as of November 2019.

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15 Comments

  1. Hi Merissa! Those turned out beautiful! I really like them. You make it look so easy to make. I can’t wait to try. 😀

  2. I am so excited to try this! My mother-in-love gave me some extra Christmas fabric that will be perfect for this 🙂

  3. This is too cute! I wish I could sew as well as you do and have the patience for all the piecing! Visiting from Treasure Box Tuesdays.

    Be Well–The Lady Kay

  4. I have looked at many of you patterns and really like them. When I try to print them they are either so tiny I can’t read them or 10 pages long. Is there a way that I can print them out in a reasonable forum.

    1. Hi Phyllis, almost all of our patterns are a single page or two and they are in a pdf file on a standard size page. Could you tell me a little more about how you are trying to print them?

  5. Getting frustrated trying to copy and paste these potholder directions. Can’t seem to get to work. Are there instructions we can purchase.

    Thanks,

    Myra

  6. I have the same question as Janet and I don’t see an answer. You say 8 strips, I only see 6 and when someone cut my fabric they cut it 1/2 inch to short so I can only get
    3 strips.
    Is 3 strips the right amount, i don’t want to buy any more fabric.
    tks