Easy Peasy Placemats and Table Runner - 1 Yard Project!

A family member had redone their bedroom and had extraordinarily expensive furniture put in. I am more of an Ikea gal myself but alas he wanted to cover the night tables as well as put a runner on the dresser to keep his rouge and mentally unstable cats from scratching the extraordinarily expensive furniture. (As it is now known.)

Of course he painted the room in an odd shade of lavender/copper so it was tough to get a match but at this store, we can find fabric to match anything. Lime green and white boudoir? Yeah we got something to match.

Anyway.

I found a great tapestry fabric to match. Tapestry is not only beautiful but it frays beautifully so I used that to give the mats and runner a carpet look. This project is also great for placemats and a table runner in your kitchen as well.

Here is how you do it...

What you need...

- 1 Yard of Woven Fabric (Tapestries work great for this, most woven will fray so ask your handy dandy fabric store employee for fabrics that will fray. )

- Thread that will hide in the fabric, I used a cream for this fabric. For fun you can use a coordinating thread.

- Sewing machine or thread and needle. (..and the patience that is required for a hand sewer.)

- Cutting tools

- Ruler

- Seam Ripper

- Paper and Scotch Tape

Directions -

♦ Start out my measuring what size you would want for mat. I needed 14"x19" mat so that's the size I went with.

♦ Put your rulers in an L shape (or cutting mat like I used) and use the paper to fill in the measurement. Tape paper together and it becomes your pattern for the mats!



♦ Lay out your fabric. I was dealing with a stripe and since it ran parallel to the selvage, I folded my fabric right sides together and lay the pattern butting up against the selvage. Make sure your pattern meets up evenly with the stripes, if you are using striped fabric.


♦ Cut evenly using a sharp scissors or rotary cutter. Try to get your cuts as evenly as possible.


♦ Get thee to the machine! There is no hard fast rule about this but we are sewing not to hem per say but to keep the fabric from fraying more than we want it to. I used my sewing machine foot as a guide and then placed a seam guide to keep me there. Sew all the way around with a shorter stitch.


♦ Once both mats are sewn all the way around find your seam ripper. (Mine was in my purse.) Starting on one side start pulling single strands of the fabric to create the fringe.



You have now created placemats! There seems to be a lot of steps but in truth it is very easy. I think any project without hemming is a dream. This is a great way to bring color and design into a room.


Voila!

Now with the runner that was even easier. Remember when we folded the fabric wrong sides together? Well when we opened that fold we had a long run of fabric which I just sewed up and fringed like the mats! It was the perfect size for the dresser.



So get out there and have fun. Sewing sometimes can get regimented with patterns and whatnot. I although have more fun when I just wing it.