Can you believe

it is only 21 days until Christmas Eve?  Where did the year go.

I asked the Mom of our young friend Julia if she had a Christmas placemat.  She doesn't, so I asked if we could give her one.  Mommy said yes -- enthusiastically I might add.  I popped over to Fat Cat Patterns as I knew Sindy had posted a Santa Claus a few years ago.  If you look under Free Patterns and click on page 4 you will find the pattern you can download.

There are no instructions on how to put this together on the website.  You are on your own, so I thought I would give you a couple of small tips that I used for my placemat.
This is the pattern.  Letters are used instead of numbers for the placement, however, what it doesn't tell you is how!  The beard is just not the beard.
                                                                                 

It is also the face.  

 After I had fused the face piece to the fabric, I used it as a guideline to cut out that part so Santa's hair and beard would surround it properly.  I drew the line and then went inside that line by 1/4" and cut that part away.

Once that was done, I started to build his face.  You are on your own with this too, so you have to follow the setting that was given.  As you can see you start with his eyes, nose and mouth, then add the eyebrows and mustache.  I didn't fuse anything until I was completely done.


I used my appliqué pressing sheet to build him up.

After the face was put together I added his hat, the pompom and the hat band.

You will have to take your time and have all your patience in tact.  It was a bit frustrating as the product I use does not adhere well, especially when you forget to remove the paper from the back!!!  LOL


The buckle was another piece that I wasn't too sure about.

I decided to just slit the gold piece and slide the belt through it.  It worked great.  Here is how I did that part.

I measured the width of the belt and then made slits on either end of the gold.

I didn't pull the paper off until I had the placement done.  I found the centre of the gold and the centre of the black and pulled the belt through until the middles met.  

When I sewed it down I used a blanket stitch and a straight stitch to hold it.  

Here is the finished mat. 

I added a pocket on one end, tucked in a napkin and I'm looking for a Christmas cutlery set to tuck into it.  

It measures about 13" x 17" and I did set the pocket right into the seam on one side.  I machine quilted it with the same thread as the mug rugs and hope it is heavy enough so the placemat holds its shape after washing.

My pillowcases have arrived at their destination.