Hello Readers. The holiday season is upon us and that means we will be taking food to parties and get-togethers as we visit friends and family. I thought it would handy to have a cover and carrying case for my baking dish. It wasn't hard to make, let me show you.
Take a dish to dinner and keep it warm too.
I had a piece of quilted fabric that I wanted to use. I have an unusual size dish. It is 9x11 but it is very deep. I tried different ways to fit my fabric piece around my dish first to make sure it would work. I made sure the fabric could wrap up the sides of my dish and overlap on the top of the dish. That is the key to the whole project.
*You could also use an old blanket, pillow sham, quilt, table cover, towel .... anything that you like that has a bit of thickness to insulate your dish.
I wanted to make my cover in the same shape as my dish. I wanted it to have sides that my dish could sit down in. I cut out these squares so that I could sew the corners of my cover.
You can see here what I mean. I wanted to sew this corner together so the sides would stand up. The extra fabric will cover the top and keep my dish warm.
I used my serger to sew the sides. It will keep them from fraying. You could also use a sewing machine with a zigzag stitch.
Here is a look at the cover with the corners sewn so that the sides stand up. There is extra fabric on each side and it looks too big but don't cut it off. It is going to make the top of the cover.
When the fabric is over the top of the dish those extra "flaps" can be tucked into the cover and add insulation to the top of the dish.
When these little flaps are tucked in the cover is nicely closed and the dish is covered and will stay warmer than if it was just sitting out uncovered. But those edges don't look great. Let's make it prettier.
I used matching double-fold
bias tape on all the exposed edges.
It will make the cover look more nicely finished.
I sewed the bias tape with matching
thread so that the stitches would blend in.
The bias tape is folded so no raw edges will show. The bias tape is like a hot dog bun and the fabric edge is the hot dog. I fit the edge of the fabric into the bias tape and sewed all 3 layers together.
The bias tape looks much better than the unfinished edges.
I took a piece of wide ribbon that was about a yard long. I connected the ends to make a loop. This is going to be the handles to carry the cover and dish.
I put the loop under the cover. The wide ribbon will help keep the dish stable and level.
I pinned the ribbon to the cover so it would stay centered in the middle of the bottom of the cover while I sew. The ribbon needs to be symmetrical to keep the dish level when carrying it.
The ribbon loop comes up over the top and makes 2 handles.
I stitched both sides of the ribbon to the cover so that it would stay in place.
I folded the handles into thirds where my hand would hold it.
I sewed about 3 inches to make the "handle" easy to grab.
When my cover was finished it stayed closed over the dish and was easy to carry. And it looks cute too.
When I open the cover my baking dish is ready to open and share. I hope you can enjoy food and fun with friends and family in the coming months.