Originally Posted by ghostrider

I use a 'retired' cotton mattress pad for the innards of potholders...old ones are best, thicker and more closely quilted...and very minimally quilt them. Remember, every time you take a stitch through the layers, you put a hole through the heat shield.

The mattress padding is plenty enough heat protection for anything coming out of an oven (unless you plan to hold it for an hour or so), it's easy to work with, it results in a nice 'grandma' type potholder and it's cheap.

I just can't see buying special batting whose only purpose is to resist heat, has no real safety advantages (it is NOT flame resistant, and does not claim to be...it's almost entirely poly after all), can be difficult to find, and only works if the correct side of the potholder is facing the heat.

Originally Posted by TonnieLoree

They are potholders, so I would guess this is where I must store my pot. Let's see though; I don't have any pot. Therefore I do not require a potholder.

In the home I grew up in they were called hot pads. Any time I have ever made a hot pad, I used the remnants from a mattress pad. The bottom was a piece of denim fabric from an old pair of jeans. The top part could have been remnants from Aunt Bessies dresses (after we removed Aunt Bessie).

Originally Posted by AliceQ

I have been using insulbrite in my potholders, but now, after reading all the suggestions on here, I won't spend money on it anymore. I have old mattress pads, towels, batting scraps, quilted muslin, sweatshirts, etc and they will be used in potholders from now on!! Thanks to you all!