Christmas Surprises

This year for Christmas I made my two brothers and my brother's girlfriend magnetic hot pads. I had not very pleasant experiences when I bought the supplies at Joanns and I left resolved not to shop there again. We'll see how long it lasts...
These are the supplies for nine hot pads:

-Fabric (linen like. I think it is a polyester linen blend.)
-Insul-Bright: needled insulated lining. It is like batting that has a heat resistant metal side to it.
-Wool felt cut from a felted sweater and scarf.
-Super strong .47/.5" diameter magnets from Jerry's. On the packages they say: Extremely Strong Magnets! Not for Children! Do not inhale magnets. As you can see they are very dangerous! :D


The hot pad pattern is 22x20cm with 1cm seam allowance. The pattern for the batting and the wool is 20x18cm. I layered the hot pads for sewing in this order facing up: right side of fabric, one layer insul-bright, one layer wool, wrong side of fabric. I found that it was best to sew the insul-bright and the wool in the seam of the hot pad to help the hot pad to lie flat.

Some of them have pockets and decorative stitching.

These are the bags I decorated to hold the lovely gifts:



So those are my surprises!