How To Make A Fusible Grid Hot Pad

Join Jen as she shows you how to make a fast, fusible hot pad in this new tutorial. She'll demonstrate how easily this project comes together with Fusible Grid. This Fusible Hot Pad kit is made with the darling Emmitt and Ivy collection from Moda Fabrics. These hot pads are easy to assemble and add a classic touch to your space. Finished hot pad measures approximately 8" x 8". 

In this video, you'll learn:

• Why a fusible grid’s package size and its actual finished square size aren’t always the same number, and how to measure your own grid before cutting a single square.
• Why Parchment Paper — not a pressing cloth — is the right thing to fuse a grid layout through, and why ironing without any swishing motion is a good technique.
• How to sew a perfect .25" seam with no drawn lines and no pins, just by aligning your presser foot against the grid’s own printed line.
• A gap-at-the-intersections trick that lets you press every row’s seams in alternating directions, so rows interlock cleanly when you join them.
• How a full basting stitch before you trim and bind makes for a much easier binding job than trimming and binding straight off the machine.

Check the links for everything you need.

INTRODUCTION

This hot pad is a free download, built around a fusible interfacing grid. The technique at the heart of this project, piecing a whole grid of squares at once using a pre-printed fusible grid, is one you'll use for this project and beyond.

1. UNDERSTANDING FUSIBLE GRID SIZING

Fusible interfacing grids come labeled by their package size, but that number doesn’t always match the size your finished squares actually end up.

1. A grid labeled "2 inch” from one manufacturer may finish smaller once a .25" seam is sewn on every side — a Bosal 2" grid, for example, finishes at 1.5".
2. Some brands upsize their printed squares on purpose. Ten Sisters, for instance, print their 2" grid at 2" per square specifically so you can cut your fabric exactly to that printed size rather than needing to undersize it.
3. Measure your actual grid before you cut anything. If your grid squares are an exact, non-upsized 2", cut your fabric squares just slightly undersized — around 1" — so the grid lines stay visible along the edges once your fabric is laid down.
4. Fusible grids generally come in finished sizes of 0.5", 1", 1.5", and 2" — know which one your pattern calls for before you buy.

The grid has two distinct sides. The smooth side with bold printed lines carries no fusing at all. The duller side, with lighter lines that show up best against a white background fabric, is the side with the fusible component. Work against white when you can so those lighter lines stay visible.

2. FUSING THE LAYOUT WITH PARCHMENT PAPER

Once your squares are cut, laying them out and fusing them as one unit — rather than fusing each square individually — keeps the whole grid aligned.

1. Build your layout directly on your Wool Pressing Mat rather than assembling it elsewhere and trying to move it — a laid-out grid of loose squares doesn’t transport well once it’s arranged.
2. Lay your background fabric down first, then arrange your cut squares, fusible side down, across the printed grid in their planned layout.
3. Cover the whole layout with parchment paper before pressing — not a pressing cloth, which will stick to the fusing and ruin the layout.
4. Iron on full heat without any swishing or sliding motion. Sliding the iron can easily nudge squares off their grid lines before they’ve bonded.
5. Let everything cool completely before separating it from the parchment paper for a clean release, then flip it over and check that nothing has come loose.

3. SEWING ON THE GRID LINES

With your grid fused and trimmed to the pattern’s outer line, the printed grid itself becomes your seam guide.

1. Lay your project fusible-side up, and trim away any excess grid outside the pattern’s outer drawn line using a rotary cutter and straight edge.
2. Sew your .25" seams by simply lining up your presser foot, or your machine’s seam guide, directly against the printed dashed blue grid line — no drawing a line yourself and no pinning required!
3. Sew each row, but leave a small gap unsewn at every other intersection rather than sewing straight through. Snip your threads at those gaps instead of backtacking over them.
4. Those gaps let you press each row’s seams in alternating directions, so when you join the rows together, the seams interlock cleanly instead of stacking up on top of each other.
5. Before feeding a seam into the machine, run a finger over it to check which direction it’s pressed. A seam that’s rolled the wrong way under the presser foot is an easy way to end up with a lumpy intersection.

4. LAYERING AND OPTIONAL DECORATIVE QUILTING

A hot pad needs real heat protection, so this project layers with two full unstacked layers of Insul-Bright Insulating Thermal Lining rather than standard batting.

1. Layer two full pieces of Insul-Bright Insulating Thermal Lining under your pieced top. The lining has no right or wrong side. 
2. Pin generously through all the layers. Curved or cool pins handle the bulk well. Stabilize each corner first with a large X pattern of pins before filling in the rest.
3. For decorative quilting, mark diagonal lines corner to corner across the whole grid with a heat-erasable Frixion Clicker Pen, or skip the marking altogether and quilt in the ditch or free motion instead.

5. SQUARING, BASTING, AND A SIMPLE BINDING

A quick basting stitch before you trim makes the whole binding step go much more smoothly on a small, bulky project like this one.

1. Once your quilting is complete, stitch a scant 1/8" basting line around the entire outer edge to lock all the layers together before you trim. This makes a real difference when it’s time to apply binding, since the edges stay put instead of shifting apart.
2. Square up your project, trimming carefully so you don’t cut into that basting stitch. Any unevenness left over from quilting will be caught up in the binding anyway.
3. Cut a 2.5" binding strip rather than a narrower 2.25". The extra width makes it easier to catch the binding on the back when you stitch in the ditch from the front.
4. Fold and press your binding strip in half, then sew it on starting away from a corner with a full .25" seam, backstitching, and stopping a quarter inch from the end. The standard approach for mitering each corner as you go around.
5. Turn the binding to the back and secure it with clips, working the miters in at each corner, then stitch it down from the front, catching the folded binding on the back as you go.

Once you understand how a fusible grid actually sizes out and how to read its printed lines as your own seam guide, a whole grid of perfectly interlocking patchwork comes together with almost no measuring, pinning, or marking at all!

For personal use only, not for commercial production. No part of this pattern may be reproduced, shared, or distributed in any form unless given express written consent by Shabby Fabrics. Not to be used with any online classes or video tutorials other than the official Shabby Fabrics tutorial. All designs, photographs, and images are protected by federal copyright law. All rights reserved.