Leather Kitchen Accessories: How to Make a Leather DIY Potholder

I had some leftover leather strips from the DIY leather frames project a while back, so I made a DIY leather potholder / heat pad to protect surfaces from hot items in the kitchen and dining room.

I love kitchen accessories, especially with all the things we’ve been cooking up lately. So, this little leather project made perfect sense.

Want to make one? Here’s what you’ll need to make your own…

Materials:

leather strips (mine are 1 1/2 inch wide and from Amazon)
sharp blade or boxcutter
leather hole punch
thick thread or string
needle with wide enough eye for string to fit through
mini clamps

Instructions:

Start by measuring and cutting 8 strips of leather that are all the same length. I measured each piece of leather to 11 inches for my pot holder.

Next, weave the pieces together with your hands – 4 across and 4 down – under over, under over. You should have excess length on all sides of the pot holder, which will be cut off later.

Use mini clamps to hold the strips together, once you’ve pulled them together as tightly as you can, with your hands.

Next, using a hammer and nail, poke two holes about 1/2 inch apart from each other on each (outer edge) square of leather (all the way through both layers), as shown in the photo. This will be your guide for the larger holes, so you want to make sure the nail goes through both layers.

Number the strips on the underside of the leather before the next step, so that you can put them back together easily later.

Use your leather hole punch to poke larger holes through all of the nail holes. You’ll need to disassemble the woven pattern to do this.

Put the leather strips back together, how they were before you poked the holes with the hole punch. Then use a long piece of thread or string and a needle to thread through all of the holes, all the way around the perimeter of the pot holder / heat pad. Tie off the end underneath with a double or triple knot and cut off excess string.

Then, using a straightedge, cut off excess edges, all the way around the perimeter, for a clean look. Add a hoop string to the finished piece if desired, for easy hanging. All done!