Making Your Own Wonder Oven

I make and sell wonder ovens in my shop on Etsy.  The problem with making your own is finding the beads for just one.  I purchase my beads, 5 mm virgin beads, from Houston Foam Plastics, and am required to purchase two huge bags at the cost of $100.  Unless you're making them with friends, or selling them, it's just not worth it.

With that said, if you want to make your own, here's what you'll need:

1.  3 yards of 100% cotton fabric.  Quilting fabric works great.  Watch for it on sale.  You don't want anything heavy like denim.

2.  The pattern.  If you can copy one from someone who already has it, that's the best idea.  Otherwise, www.iwillprepare.com offers these patterns and directions:

3.  Scissors or a rotary cutter with a mat.  My patterns are cardboard, so I like the rotary cutter since I can't pin the pattern to the fabric.  
4.  Marker.  If using scissors, you can also use a marker to trace around the pattern, and then cut.
5.  5 mm virgin beads.  These beads are about the size of a pin head.  You need this size because you don't want extra air.  The beads insulate and you want them as close together as possible.  For instance, packing peanuts would be the worst.

6.  Pins.  You may not need pins to sew the pieces together, but you will want them to hold it together after you've stuffed it with beads and are starting to close the opening. 
7.  A large funnel
8.  A bucket or some way to measure the beads
9.  Sewing machine and thread.  The ones I sell are double stitched, and to save time, I use a double needle.  The wonder oven I use at home just has one seam because it's the first one I ever made, and it has held up just fine.  If you prefer yours double stitched, you can stitch again next to the original seam.
10.  Seam ripper.  Just in case.


Now for the directions:

Step 1:  Your 3 yards of fabric is already folded in half from the bolt.  Since you need FOUR of each piece, fold the fabric once, end to end, so you will have four layers of fabric.  Now you'll only have to make one cut.

Step 2:  Place the pattern on the fabric and either trace around the pieces with a marker,  or cut with a rotary cutter.

Step 3:  Take two of your bottom pieces and with RIGHT SIDES TOGETHER, sew from POINT TO POINT on the LONGEST SIDE.  Just sew one side.  Then do the same with the other piece. 

Step 4:  Take the two pieces you sewed together in  Step 3 and match them up at the seams.  You'll see that one end is wider than the other, so make sure you have it matched up correctly or you'll be using that seam ripper.  You may want to pin.

Step 5:  Start sewing from the seam on the widest part and go ALMOST all the way around.  Leave about a 4" opening.  This is where you're going to insert the beads.

Step 6:  Turn your fabric right side out.

Step 7:  Take a look at your TOPS.   Sew two of the pieces together on the longest side.  You'll see in the diagram that the point from side to side is the longest area to sew.  This is really important.   Now do the same thing on the other two pieces.

Step 8:  Matching up seams, sew these two top pieces with RIGHT SIDES TOGETHER, leaving a 4" opening for stuffing.

Step 9:  Turn your fabric right side out.

Step 19:  Using the funnel, pour THREE buckets of beads in the bottom piece.  Seal with pins. 

Step 11:  Using the funnel, pour ONE AND A HALF buckets of beads in the top piece.  Seal with pins.

Step 12:  Go back to the sewing machine, and stitch the openings for both the top and bottom.  Make sure you lock the stitch at both ends so it won't come loose.

Step 13:  Now go clean up the mess from the beads and fabric scraps!

Your finished wonder oven will look somewhat floppy.  That's a good thing.  You don't want it stuffed so full that you are limited on the sizes of pots you can use.