grammasharon

I made several microwave bowl holders and gave them to friends. They tell me they did shrink terribly. How do you prepare it to use it in the bowl holders. I purchased a 10 yard bolt 😏. Thank you so much for any advice you can give me.

MFord

I soaked mine in hot water and put it in the dryer on low...must have caught on something because it came out with a few bad spots. I also prewashed the fabric in hot water. After making the bowl covers and quilting them slightly, I washed them, and still got some shrinkage. I think the best thing to do is heavily quilt the items, or just tell people they shrink and get wrinkly. It doesn't stop them from working!

I'm thinking that the only way to do heavy quilting is to use two pieces of batting, one for each fabric piece, and quilt them before sewing your darts. I'd do a basic meander, not try anything fancy. Then finish as usual. I've made three in the past two days, but haven't tried the all over quilting idea yet. It looks like a 10 or 10 1/2" square is a good size for average bowls.

If I get any that look really good, I'll post pictures!

Cari-in-Oly

Margaret that's how I make mine. I quilt a piece of fabric to the piece of wrap N Zap, then make the darts and sew the two pieces together. I'll usually do a free motion motif I want to learn, after I've done a few bowls I'll feel confident enough to try the quilting motif on a quilt. Nobody pays attention to the quilting on the bowls anyway.

Cari

grammasharon

Thank you Margaret and Cari for the good suggestions. I follow a free pattern I found on the net and it calls for an X and then across both ways. I believe I will try a meander and see how that works. I enjoy making them but was so disappointed when I saw how they washed. Yesterday I took a yard and soaked it in hot water and then put it in the dryer. It shrunk up quite a bit. I made a bowl holder and will try washing it to see how it does. Thank you for the good practical advice. Sharon

nanascottie

I made my first bowl holders last week . I used some wrap and zap I had leftover from a few years ago for 2 of the bowls and it sewed well but shrank only a little. the third bowl i purchased a new package of wrap and zap and it was thinner and less sturdy and had really thin spots in it. when i washed that bowl holder it really shrunk and was misshapen after i washed it. Is there any other better batting that can be used?? I have heard that batting that says it is 100 % cotton really has a polyester scrim in it which could catch fire in the microwave?

minibarn

I just had a thread about this exact same issue...here is a link...Using Wrap and Zap. I did as stated above and soaked my WnZ in very hot water, then washed my fabric in hot water also. As of this writing though I have not made a bowl w/the preshrunk fabric. I want to quilt the pieces a bit heavier before assembling. I like the idea of practicing FMQ w/the bowls. Anyway, hope to get one done in the next couple of days and I will post new pics. Wish these tutorials would state that the bowls holders look awful if you don't preshrink, would save some disappointment.