Scraps or Yardage

The wonderful thing about creating is that you are the boss. You can make this project completely from scraps or from yardage. Also, you can make placemats whatever size you think is best for your table and dishes. Because I have big plates, I make placemats that work for my dishes. The finished size of these is approximately 18.5″ x 14.5″.

Big Scraps or Small

When sewing scraps together, it is sort of like making fabric. You can sew lots of little pieces together and cut them down to block size or if your scraps are large enough you can cut them the size you need for your design. In this project, there are six rectangles 6 1/2″ x 5 1/2″ and one large rectangle 18 1/2″ x 4 1/2″ for each placemat. To make the binding, there are 2″ wide strips of fabric sewn together to make a piece about 76-80″ long for each placemat. I like to line my placemats with either interfacing, Soft & Stable, or batting. The placemats pictured here are made with Warm & Natural Cotton Batting. If you use a very thick batting or Soft & Stable, you may want to increase the width of your binding strips to 2 1/4″ or 2 1/2″.

A Placemat is Like a Mini Quilt

Sometimes, I’ll audition a quilt idea by making a placemat of potholder. They are very small projects but can let me know if I’m onto something I want to pursue on a larger scale. This is because assembly is quick and easy with placemats. With scrappy ones, there is the added bonus of staying entertained with choosing different fabrics for each one.

Video Coming Soon

Additional information will be posted once I’ve had time to edit a very lengthy video. There is a lot of repetive sewing and pressing which needs to be shortened or removed. In the meantime, if you have any questions, please ask.

Affiliate Links

Thank you to Connecting Threads for sending me the lovely packet of Spring Nectar fat quarters. This is the last project I’ve made from the wonderful floral fabric. You can see a pojagi style curtain, potholders, and a rice-pouch bag in the posts immediately preceding this one which uses this fabric. The placemats are made from the scraps leftover from those projects. If you make a purchase after clicking through from this blog, it will not cost you anything additional but will pay me a small commission for my time and expenses. Thank you.