Casserole Carrier

I made a casserole carrier for a friend of mine several years ago.  I stumbled across the pattern while organizing my sewing shelf and decided I needed to make one of these for myself.

My attempt at meandering quilting

In typical Sally style, I didn't follow the instructions precisely.  I take the attitude that they're "more what you'd call guidelines than actual rules."  I decided to add some patchwork blocks to the design and stitch the handles slightly different than the original (because I thought the handles were too far apart).  Why use Teflon-coated quilted fabric when I can make my own with Insul-Bright?  I used whatever material  I had on hand, which wasn't quite enough, so I had to get creative.  In addition I wanted to try stipple/meander quilting part of it, which is more challenging that the stitch-in-the-ditch that I normally do.

In other words, I took a simple set of instructions and added lots of complications.  I am rather pleased with the results.

Making the blocks were pretty straightforward.  I miscalculated the amount of background material I needed, as usual.  And forgot to cut out and sew the notches for the handles the first time around.  <sigh>

As I attempted to sew the two main pieces together, I mangled my sewing needle.  I found half of it, bent and stuck into the back side of the fabric I was sewing.  I'm not sure how it broke like that. Although, come to think of it, it was probably going through... um... six layers of fabric and six layers of batting (three layers which were reflective).

Heh.  I love my sewing machine - it takes a beating and keeps on running.

The carrier is designed for a 9x13" pan.  It fits around my round springform pan pretty well, too (gotta keep my Chocolate Apricot Ring warm for Breakfast Club!).  I had to fight with the dowels, which slip into sleeves sewn into the dark green ends.  I guess I don't have to worry about them falling out!

The original instructions are so old the web page no longer exists, but I did find it on Wayback Machine for those of you interested in them:  Casserole Carrier.

Update:  I've made another carrier and included my instructions:  Making a Casserole Carrier.