Sew a Microwave Safe Bowl Cozy & Free Printable Gift Tags

Learn to sew a microwave safe bowl cozy!

With the start of school ~~right around the corner~~ already here. I thought this microwave safe bowl cozy would be the perfect thing to have for all those after school microwave friendly snacks. I know when my children were school age, they always came home from school just famished. You would have thought that they hadn’t eaten in days, let alone just a few hours.

I don’t know if they’re still the go-to after school snack, but our kids would throw a bowl of Ramen noodles or ravioli in the microwave. No matter what bowls they used, the bowls would get pretty hot. Our son would always try to remove the bowls anyway with his bare hands. I can’t even begin to tell you how many hot bowls of noodles or pasta or soup have been dropped or spilled through the years!

Now that most of our children have grown up and moved out of our house, I have time to sew things like this microwave safe bowl cozy. In fact, I made these bowl cozies for each of our children this past Christmas. Through the years, we’ve been gravitating towards more handmade or homemade gifts for Christmas. We really try to make the holidays more about memories and time with family than about the gifts under the tree. This year, our Christmas gift giving was almost 100% handmade gifts.

The bowl cozies were a big hit. In fact, my husband loves the bowl cozy and literally uses it daily. (He’s a little obsessed with those Rice Sides from Knorr right now.) When I prepare the Rice Sides for him, I usually make them on the stovetop, but even so, the bowl gets pretty hot! Then there’s ice cream. My Corelle dishes get pretty cold when filled with ice cream. The bowl cozy is perfect for bowls of ice cream!

So, whether you use the bowl cozy in the microwave or not, it’s perfect for protecting your hands from hot or cold bowls! And because the bowl cozies are made with 100% cotton fabric, batting and thread, they are completely microwave safe! I feel like I need to issue a word of caution – be sure that if you’re going to use your bowl cozy in the microwave that you use 100% cotton fabric, batting and thread.

Microwave Safe Bowl Cozy

This post contains affiliate links to products I use and/or recommend. If you click on a link and make a purchase, I may make a small commission at absolutely no additional cost to you!

Supplies:

Most of the below links are to the exact products I use and can be purchased on Amazon, JOANN Fabrics or your favorite craft store. When possible, I have linked to the product on Amazon. Why? Because I love using Amazon Prime. I mean, who doesn’t like free 2-day shipping? And, usually, the best prices around?

Sewing Machine
Scissors
Rotary Cutter
Cutting Mat (Sometimes you can use a 50% off coupon at JOANN or Hobby Lobby – never pay full price!)
Bone Turner
Cotton Thread (Love this thread! Again, use your discount coupons and never pay full price!)
Metal Ruler
10” x 10” square of Cotton Fabric
10” x 10” square of Coordinating Cotton Fabric
2 – 9-1/2” x 9-1/2” squares of Cotton Batting (I used the Warm and Natural brand from JoAnn)

Helpful Hints:

You can easily modify this pattern for larger bowls; simply cut your squares at 12” or 15” and adjust your darts to 2-1/2” for the 12” squares or 3” for the 15” squares.
You can also cut your batting 1” smaller to make sewing the edges easier and less bulky. For example, instead of cutting your square of batting 10”, cut it 9”.

Important Note: If you plan to microwave your bowl, only use 100% cotton fabric, batting, and thread to avoid fire hazards. So, in other words, if you use anything besides 100% cotton fabric, 100% cotton batting or 100% cotton thread and put this bowl cozy in the microwave, it can catch fire.

Instructions:

Cut Fabric:

From main fabric cut a 10″x10″ square.

From the contrast fabric cut a 10″x10″ square.

From the cotton batting, cut two 9-1/2″x9-1/2″ squares.

With a square of your main fabric face down, center a piece of cotton batting and pin or clip in place. Sew an “X” in the fabric by stitching from corner to corner. You can use a quilting stitch, zig zag or straight stitch.

Place the contrast fabric face down, center a piece of cotton batting, pin in place and sew an X across the fabric, just like the main fabric.

Fold each piece of fabric/batting in half, with the batting side out. Make a mark 1-1/2” from the fold along the top edge. Make a second mark 2-1/2” from the top, along the fold. Draw a line connecting the two marks. Stitch along the line. Trim seam allowance. Repeat three more times so that you have four corners sewn and trimmed. Repeat with the coordinating fabric/batting.

Open up the main fabric right side up, so that it’s sitting like a bowl.

Open up the contrasting fabric batting side up, so that it’s sitting like a bowl.

Place the contrasting fabric bowl inside the main fabric bowl (right sides together) and pin together.

Sew around the edges, using a ¼” seam allowance. Leave a 3” opening for turning. (Try not to leave the opening at a corner.) Trim seam allowances and clip corners.

Turn bowl right side out. Use bone turner to push out corners of bowl. Press the opening and edges of bowl flat. Top stitch ¼” around top of bowl cover, making sure to turn in the edges of the opening.

Your microwave safe bowl cozy is complete and completely reversible! You can whip up a batch of these in no time!

I made these bowl cozies for each of our seven children this past Christmas. Through the years, we’ve been gravitating towards more handmade or homemade gifts for Christmas. We really try to make the holidays more about memories and time with family than about the gifts under the tree. This year, our Christmas gift giving was almost 100% handmade gifts.

The bowl cozies were a big hit. In fact, my husband loves his bowl cozy and literally uses it daily. (He’s a little obsessed with those Rice Sides from Knorr right now.) When I prepare the Rice Sides for him, I usually make them on the stovetop, but even so, the bowl gets pretty hot! Then there’s ice cream. My Corelle dishes get pretty cold when filled with ice cream. The bowl cozy is perfect for bowls of ice cream, too!

Bowl Cozy Gift Tags

No handmade gift is complete without personalized gift tags. These Bowl Cozy Gift Tags read:

“This bowl cozy is handmade with 100% cotton and is microwave safe. Simply place your bowl of food in the cozy and reheat as usual. Remove bowl with the cozy to avoid burning your fingers. Also great for cold food. Reversible cozy is machine washable.”

These Bowl Cozy Gift Tags are available for free exclusively to subscribers of The Birch Cottage newsletter. To gain access, simply subscribe below. You’ll then receive an email with a link to the Subscribers Resource Library where you’ll have access to this free printable and everything in the Library!

Handmade with Love Care Tags

If you’d like to include care instructions with your Bowl Cozy, I’ve got those, too! Like the Bowl Cozy Gift Tags, the Handmade with Love Care Tags are available exclusively to subscribers. Once you subscribe, you’ll also have access to the Handmade with Love printable care tags (and so much more)!

These bowl cozies really do make lovely, unexpected gifts. Whether you’re looking to make a handmade gift for Christmas, wedding, bridal shower, birthday, Mother’s Day, Christmas Day, co-worker gifts or maybe even as a thank you gift for your neighbor who shovels snow from your sidewalk. I’ve also made little Care Tags that you can print and include with your handmade gift. The Care Tags tell the recipient what materials were used in the construction of their gift and how to care for it.

Happy sewing! If you make these microwave safe bowl cozies, I’d love to see a picture of your finished work. You can email me or tag me #thebirchcottage or #ahandmadehome on social media.

Til next time…