How to make diy placemats – tutorial

Placemats are a must in your kitchen! So handy and practical, they work pretty not only for breakfast but also for lunch and dinner… at my house they have replaced the tablecloth definitely! With this tutorial I’d like to show you how to create frame-model placemats decorated with appliqué technique. They are so cute that make you want to eat them! 🙂

To make 2 placemats you need:

– red and withe gingham cotton fabric about 1 m x 1m;

– beige cotton fabric about 50 cm x 50 cm;

– white, yellow, light and dark brown felt sheets;

– threads;

Cut two rectangles 47 x 32 cm from the gingham fabric; with these sizes you’ll get two placemats 45 x 30 cm. From beige fabric cut 4 strips wide 6 cm and long as much as the sides of the gingham fabric, in other words 2 bands 6 x 47 cm and 2 other bands 6 x 32 cm.

Fold the long side of every strip for 1 cm. Press it with iron. Now you have to attach the other side of the strip (the one without the fold) at the edge of the mat on the wrong side. Sew leaving a border of 1 cm. Pay attention to this stitching step: you must start and stop stitching 1 cm after and 1 cm before the corners.

Now you can sew up the corner; to get a perfect result there is a trick: press the fabric with the iron, first in a way, and then in the opposite way (like you can see in the image); you must sew along the fold that you have obtain!

Remove surplus fabric, then turn the banding on the other side.

Sew up the beige frame along the internal sides. Here is how it should look like:

Now is the time for the funniest step: decorations with appliqué! For this project I tried to reproduce a slice of toast and a fried egg. Draw the shape on paper, then copy them on felt. For these subjects you need white and yellow felt. Cut and then paste them on the placemat. I used regular zig-zag and satin zig-zag stitches.

Here you are your placemats, ready to cheer breakfasts, lunches and dinners, and brighten up your kitchen! 🙂 I’m very proud of this project, the red and white gingham gives a bit country style, applications are fun, original but also very easy to do!