Placemats from Stash - Guidelines and Tutorial

Placemats are great to make for gifts - or to keep! 

You can make one and give it to someone who lives alone or donate to your local Meals on Wheels. 

Or you can make them in sets.

I decided to make a set of placemats, but not make them all match! 

This is easy and fun to do with your stash.

 I'll share a couple of guidelines so you can see the possibilities in your own stash!

GUIDELINES FOR MAKING STASH PLACEMATS:

1. Make them all the SAME SIZE. I make mine no bigger than a fat quarter of fabric. These placemats finish at 12 inches high by 19 inches wide.

2. Use the SAME BACKING fabric. Mine all have this floral fabric so I can flip them over for Easter! You could also use co-ordinating fat quarters from a line of fabric. The fabrics will match, but not be all the same.

3. Pick a COMMON THEME. I included the mitten applique motif in my PLACEMATS FROM STASH TUTORIAL NOTES pdf. You can make your mittens all the same colour, from the same fabric line, or not! 

The bottom placemat in this photo was really quick and easy - 2 sets of mittens, 2 fat quarters, some batting and DONE!

A common theme could also be common fabric. I used different leftover pieces of the same print to make these two placemats. They go together but don't match! {The tree motif is from my Primitive Joy pattern}

4. USE WHAT YOU HAVE! The cute placemat with the mittens dancing down the middle of two sets of stripes is made with leftovers from another project. I just cut the strip in two and added another piece of leftover fabric. You might need to use a little math here, but don't worry it's easy math. My strips are 3 1/2 inches wide and the middle fabric is 5 inches wide {including seam allowances}

5. HAVE FUN! Use up the novelty prints that you've been collecting. Find the bits and orphan blocks that have been waiting to play. 

6. DOWNLOAD my PLACEMATS FROM STASH TUTORIAL NOTES. The measurements for the placemat directly above, with the print in the middle and pairs of mittens down the sides, are given. I might make more quick notes for the others.

I used the envelope method to put my placemats together - a quick method that involves no binding. There's a quick diagram included on the pdf.  You can use binding if you want to - another opportunity to make your placemats MATCH by using the same binding.

  

Enjoy making from your stash this holiday season!

With JOY,

Sarah Vee