Place Mat Tutorial

As promised, here's the sewing tutorial for my reversible placemats.  These placemats are made with Spoonflower's linen-cotton fabric so the finished product has a nice  heavy, high-quality feel.  Two textile designs are used so they're reversible-- You get ten placemats in one set, but you only have to store five.

They're meant to be machine washed and dried, and I've accounted for shrinkage so go ahead and slop away (I do!).

The tutorial below is also for my receiving blanket cut & sew patterns that are sewn the same way.

You can find all of my Cut and Sew Patterns here:

 

TUTORIALS:

If you are a beginner at sewing, you can watch this video tutorial  that I made and then use the illustrated tutorial below for reference.  If you are more advanced, I suggest going straight to the illustrated tutorial below.


Video Tutorial:

Illustrated Tutorial:

After your receive your cut & sew placemats, cut out each placemat pattern piece.

Each piece has two designs to make a reversible placemat.

Fold the piece in half, matching the numbers on the corners.  Make sure the fold falls along the border between the two designs.

Transfer the dot to the  unprinted side of the pattern with a pencil.  This dot indicates the opening that is used to turn the placemat inside-out.  You can start your seam at this mark.

Start your seam at the dot (double-back to reinforce) and continue around all edges until the  fold.  Double-back to reinforce the end of the seam.

Clip the corner EXCEPT the un-sewn folded corner, about 1/8" from the seams.  Clipping will make the corners sharper and neater when we turn the place mat inside out.

Press the seams open on both faces so the edges will be nice and neat when the placemat is turned inside out.  At the opening, fold the edges 5/8" over (like the rest the side).  This opening will be sewn shut when we topstitch the placemat.

Turn the placemat inside out.  Use a chopstick to make the corners nice and sharp, but be gentle so that you don't poke the chopstick through.

Press the corners and edges to make them neat.

Top stitch 1/4" around the edges.  Your placemat is now complete.  Repeat with the other 4 pattern pieces.