Kitchen Accessories to Make

 The apartment I moved into almost a year ago had a number of differences from the old one, and I decided it needed a few things to help it out. I had made potholders and hot pads a few years ago, along with a phone prop, so I had some scraps leftover to work with. I also love Robert Kaufman’s Essex Linen line (I probably have it in every room), so I used that in “flax” on these projects. 

The first thing was that my sink no longer has any kind of wall behind it - the faucet is just inserted into the counter that runs to the sitting area. The higher faucet it came with has a bigger tendency to splash, and there is nothing to stop the water that spills, so I decided it needed a drip catcher. I drafted my own pattern, made it reversible, and put 1/4” foam in it for padding. Now no more water running all over! 

I have a drying mat for the dishes I was by hand, but it was getting quite dirty (not sure how, since only clean dishes go on it…), so I made a cover for it - it’s essentially a pillowcase! I cut my pieces to be one inch bigger than the mat, and then made it like I would a pillowcase, slid the mat in, and it’s good to go. 

The plastic bags I save under my sink for reuse were getting to be a bit much, so I made this holder to keep them from spilling all over. It’s a x rectangle sewn into a tube, with one end squared off like a tote bag, and the other with an elastic casing. Simple but effective for keeping things under control! 

I wanted some placemats, but nothing too complicated, so I just sewed two rectangles together, clipped the corners and right-sides them out, topstitched along the edge, and then did a decorative stitch on my machine 2” from the edge to make them a little fancier. 

Lastly, I have this adorable teapot that some friends found at an antique shop for me, but I don’t use it every day, so I wanted something to keep the dust off from it. I saw some cute pictures online of covers, so I used those as inspiration to make my own design. 

I would love to say this is a “spring reset” for my kitchen, but I’m pretty sure winter will be here for a bit yet, so I’m glad to have these new items in my kitchen to make things cheery!