Insulated Casserole Carrier!

I saw these insulated casserole carriers on Pinterest and, like so many other things I see there, thought they were a great idea and pinned it.  I knew I could use one, and had a friend or two that I thought they would make a good gift for.  Although, like so many other things I pin on Pinterest, I wasn't sure when I'd actually get around to doing it.

But then my father-in-law showed up to Easter Dinner with his scalloped potatoes wrapped in a bath towel, and I knew I had found my first recipient. 

 

The hardest part about making this was finding fabrics that were manly enough for my father-in-law and still interesting enough for me.  I mean, I have a hard enough time picturing him toting his own personal insulated casserole carrier--it definitely would not work to have it in a lovely floral print.  I think I struck a good balance.  I love the woodgrain print for the interior--and he does a lot of woodworking, so that works too.

The tutorial for this project can be found here, at 2 little hooligans.  I found it via this post on the blog Homemade By Jill , who had some great tips that I took into consideration.  I followed her directions on using the cotton belting for the strap, as well as extending the length of the carrier to fit a pyrex dish with handles (pictured above).  

Closeup of the fabrics

I do feel like this is a bit of a strange gift for a guy. I knew that he would love it because he loves ME, but just in case...it never hurts to tuck a batch of peanut butter cookies inside.  That way my bases were covered.

Easy to carry

I did end up spending more money on this project than I typically associate with a DIY though.  This could have been avoided with better planning--as it was, I only had one Joann's coupon and one chance for a trip to Joann's, so I was paying full price for almost all of the materials rather than 40% off, the way I usually like to play it.  It takes 2 full yards of fabric (1 for interior, 1 for exterior--ooh, but if you used the same fabric for both you could totally get away with 1.5 yards) plus a full yard of the Insul-Brite lining, which costs $7.99/yard.  Then there's the velcro (about $8/yd if you use the 2" stuff, which I recommend you do, you need 2/3 yard), and the cotton belting (another $3/yd and you need 2.5 yards--but this can be avoided if you make fabric straps instead; there's enough fabric leftover to do this.) Just a heads-up.  Also, it's pretty quick--I made mine in about 90 minutes, but I admit that I was watching America's Next Top Model for 60 minutes of that time (I'm not ashamed), so it's possible you could get it done even faster.

Here's what it looks like when opened up

I had to stand up on the kitchen counter to get the photo of the carrier all opened up--which was quite interesting to a certain someone. 

My little helper