Sewing Project

Sewing Friends:

Here is a placemat that you might like to sew for yourself or give as a gift.  I prefer to use prequilted fabric to make the placemats quick and easy to sew.  However, you may want to make your own quilted fabric if you feel ambious!

Why not include a table runner for the center of the table as part of your gift plus make a pot holder out of the left over scraps. 

Don’t you think this is a good idea for a gift at holiday time?  Everyone loves holiday themed table settings. 

Sew six placemats, a table runner and a pot holder out of a small amount of pre-quilted fabric.  Now that’s a good deal and a wonderful thoughtful gift.

What are the sizes?

• The size of these placemats are 13″ x 20″
• The table runner for the center of the table is 13″ x 30″
• The pot holder is a 7″ circle or you can cut it square with rounded corners if you wish

How Much Fabric Do You Need?

• About 1-1/2 yards of pre-quilted fabric will do for all of these items.
• Either buy about 1/2 yard of coordinated or contrasting unquilted fabric for binding or use purchased bias binding to finish the edges.

Preshrink all the fabrics and press them well.

You will also need a 7″ circle of fusible fleece or Thinsulate for the pot holder.

I recommend using fusible thread to apply your binding.

Make the patterns

Placemat

• Draw a rectangle 20″ long by 13″ deep on a piece of cardboard. If you don’t have cardboard, press a couple of pieces of freezer paper shiny sides together to create a sturdy pattern to trace around.
• Rather than deal with corners, round them off to allow faster and easier binding.
• Lay a salad plate on the corners and draw the curve to round all four corners.

Table Runner 

• Draw a pattern for the table runner using the placemat pattern, but add an exta 10 ” to the center of the placemat to lengthen it to 30″

Pot Holder

• Draw a 7″ circle pattern for the pot holders.  I use my bread and butter plate to help me draw this circle.  Or, draw a 7″ square and round off the corners.  I use a small juice glass to help me draw the round corners.

Mark the fabric 

• Lay the fabric back side up.
• Lay the placemat pattern on the fabric
• Draw around the pattern with a marking pen
• Move the pattern over and continue drawing all the placemats conserving as much fabric as you can so you can make the most of your fabric. You should be able to draw 2 placemats across the fabric.
• Draw the table runner on the back side across the fabric.
• Draw 7″ circles for the pot holder.  You need two 7″ circles for the pot holder

Cut Out The Placemats, Runner and Pot Holder 

• Now cut out all the placemats, the table runner and pot holder pieces.

Staystitch the Placemats, Runner and Pot Holder

• Staystitch 1/4″ all around the outside edges of the placemats, table runner and pot holder pieces.

Cut Binding Strips

• Cut bias binding strips 2-1/4″ wide.  You may also use wide purchased bias binding to finish the edges.

See the article on my Sewing Success Sewing Blog on “How Much Bias Can You Cut From A Square”

Also see the article here for the  “Easy Method For Sewing Bias Strips Together” 

Bind The Placemats

• Press both raw edges of the bias strip in 1/2″.
• Place fusible thread in the bobbin of your sewing machine.
• Set your sewing machine stitch length to a long stitch. . . 8 - 10 stitches per inch (No. 4 on many machines).
• Beginning along one long edge of a placemat, open out the bias strip, and place the right side of the strip against the back side of the quilted fabric. 
• Stitch 1/2″ from the cut edges along the pressed fold line of the bias strip stretching it slightly at the rounded corners. 
• At the end, fold under about 1/2″ to finish off the binding and go beyond your beginning stitches about 1″.
• The right side will have the fusible thread showing.
• Now, smoothly wrap the bias over the quilted fabric raw edges to the outside and place the pressed under folded edge of the bias strip over the fusible thread stitching.  Put pins in to hold in place about 4-6″ apart.
• When you are sure everything is as smooth as possible, press the bias to the placemat fusing it to the fusible thread and removing the pins as you come to them.
• Check the tape for a smooth finish.  If you have any wrinkles, heat the tape with the iron, lift and reposition the tape to remove any diagonal pull.  If the thread won’t hold the second fuse, just lay a loose piece of fusible thread under the tape and repress.
• Remove the fusible thread from the sewing machine.
• Topstitch the fused folded edge of the bias tape to the placemat to secure permanently. 
• Note:  Instead of topstitching, you might like to use your blind hem stitch  to secure the binding.  Try it!

Repeat this procedure for the table runner.

Sew A Pot Holder

• Cut a 7″ circle of fusible fleece or Thinsulate
• Fuse or stitch it to one of the pot holder circles
• Place the 2 pot holder circles together
• Pin and stitch the two potholders together sandwiching the fleece in between
• Bind the pot holder. 
• You may create a hanging loop with the bias strip if desired or attach a round plastic curtain ring to hang the pot holder.  In the “old days” we always hung our pot holders near the kitchen stove.  I don’t think anyone does that anymore, however, if you want the “retro look”, hang up some pot holders!

Now you have created a beautiful set of reversible quilted placemats and table runner plus a pot holder that anyone would love to receive as a gift. 

Start sewing for the holidays or for that special anniversary, bridal shower or house warming gift! 

It just makes sense!

To Your Sewing Success,

Marian

PS:  How about sharing your placemat ideas.  New ones or old ones, simple or complicated, we love them all.  Please add yours to our growing list.

You can contact me here. 

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This entry was posted on Monday, April 30th, 2007 at 10:04 am and is filed under Sewing Projects. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.