I love square placemats.
I don’t know why, possibly because I can get more of them on the table
when the whole motley crew is here. We
are 11 around the table and that many placemats spread out takes up a lot of
room. My preference for size is between
15 and 16 inches. They hold everything
nicely.
I start with the backing.
I cut the fabric piece larger than required ~~ let’s say about 2” more
all the way around. So for a 15” finish,
I will cut 17” to start. I fold the
square piece of fabric in half and sew on the folded edge.
I use what I call my
“rule of thirds”. One third of the
backing is regular stitch length, then a basting stitch length and back to
regular stitch length. I re-enforce the
beginning and end of the stitching at the basting break. To make life easier for me, I fold the fabric
in thirds and finger press the folds.
Like so:
I stitch using a ½” seam allowance, not ¼” as you usually
would. Then I trim away the fold very,
very close to the edge with my ruler and rotary cutter.
Once that is done, I open it up and then press the seam flat. Then I trim it down to the exact same size as the front.
I use needlepunch in
my placemats. I love it! It never, ever looses its shapes. It lasts longer than the fabric. For these particular placemats, I’m also
going to slide in some Insulbrite to protect the tables as they could come in
handy for fabric trivets at some time.
I lay the shiny side down onto the needlepunch, then I lay
the front down facing towards me, then the backing. The backing is right sides together with the
front.
Then I sew around the entire placemat, and now I use my walking foot as my guide, trim away any
excess and then zig-zag all the layers together.
Second to last thing
to do is turn it all right side out, by opening up that basting stitching.
Give it a good pressing.
Pin and slipstitch
the opening closed. You are done.
A PDF is available on the "How To" page on the right hand side of the blog.
