What a difference a placemat makes. I turned over the Easter Tablescape Place Mat to the solid side to make this tablescape. I love the color purple, but living in a household full of men, I don’t usually use the color around our home. (it’s not really a ‘manly’ color) But for Easter, I couldn’t resist. I hope you enjoy our Easter Table Scape.
Spring is right around the corner! And that means that Easter will be here before you know it. Time to change out the St. Patrick’s Day decorations & replace them with all of the pastels of Easter.
There were so many beautiful fabrics to choose from this year. I spent more time in Joanne Fabrics than I should have, but I finally found a theme for this year. Easter Eggs! And the fabric that I found had so many lovely colors in it. I checked the color sample area of the fabric & really had to debate on which color I wanted to go with this year. 
Since I live in a household full of men, I don’t use my favorite color very often. (not exactly a ‘manly’ color) But, I just had to go with Lilac for my tablescape. I couldn’t resist it.
I don’t know of a better way to add color to a tablescape than by using placemats. I usually make my own because I can customize them to my tastes and they are almost always less expensive than store bought. Another reason that I like making reversible placemats is because it takes less room to store them. (store 4 instead of 8) It’s hard enough to organize your home as it is, especially when you don’t have that much room to begin with.
For this one I used the Oval Placemat Pattern from a previous post.
What you’ll need:
1 yard of patterned fabric
1 yard of solid fabric (I used costume satin. It’s easily washed & has intense color)
Matching thread
Sewing machine
Straight pins
Ribbon (optional) (I used 1 roll of 9′ long)
Pin the pattern to your fabric & cut 4 of the placemats from the patterned fabric & 4 from the solid fabric.
To mark the placement for the ribbon, I folded the pattern piece in half. Then I laid the pattern on the cut placemat piece & used the bottom of the fold as a guide. (I chose this because the ribbon was printed with words. I wanted to be able to read it through the plates) Pin the ribbon in place.
Sew the ribbon to the solid placemat fabric, stitching close to the edges.
Sew the ribbon to all of the solid placemat pieces.
Place 1 solid placemat piece on top of 1 patterned piece, right sides together. Pin in place, leaving an opening for turning. Repeat for all 4.
A little trick that I learned a long time ago, is to use 2 pins to mark the place where I want to begin sewing & where to end sewing. You need to leave a space opened to be able to fit your hand inside to turn the placemats to the right side. There’s nothing more frustrating than to sew an item, only to realize that you’ve forgotten to leave an open space to turn it. It’s such a waste of time to have to rip out stitches.
Sew all the way around the placemats, starting at one ‘different colored pin’ & finishing at the other pin. (to leave the opening) I usually sew about 1/4″ from the edge. Turn the placemat, right side out. Pin the opening closed. Top stitch around the placemat, using matching color thread. Top stitching the placemat closes the opening & keeps the edges of the placemat crisp. Press lightly.
Use the fabrics that speak to you. These are for your home. Customizing your placemats is easy. Make them your own & have fun with this.
I love to decorate for the holidays. Especially the dinner table. Making the items makes it unique. I’ll show you how to do it too!
A diy place setting
Items you will need:
1 yard of patterned fabric
1 yard of solid colored fabric
1 spool of ribbon (my spool was 7/8″ wide by 9 feet long)
measuring tape
sewing machine & thread & pins
scissors
brown craft/packing paper (to make the pattern)
I start all of my patterns using brown craft/packing paper. It’s better to make a mistake on paper than on your fabric.
starting your pattern
Measure 17 1/2″ by 12″. That’s the size that works for me, but you can adjust it to fit your needs.
Then measure 2″ from the corners and mark. Draw a line to connect the marks.
Repeat on all 4 corners. Cut off the triangle pieces that were your corners.
I used 2 yards of fabric for 4 place mats. One yard of patterned fabric & one yard of solid fabric.
Cut out 4 place mats from the patterned fabric:
Cut out 4 place mats from the solid colored fabric:
Add some decorative ribbon to the solid side of the place mat piece:
To get an idea of where I wanted the ribbon placement, I laid the silverware out on it:
Then I added 1/4″ inward form the side to allow for the seam allowance. Mine was 4 1/2″ in from both sides.
Pin the ribbon in place & sew in place.
After sewing the ribbon in place on all 4 place mat pieces, pin the right side (good side) of the solid fabric to the right side (good side) of the patterned fabric together.
Stitch around the place mat pieces, leaving an opening large enough to insert your hand to turn the place mat right side out.
Turn place mat right side out. Press & pin the opening (that you left opened to turn). Top stitch about 1/4″ all the way around. That will keep the edges crisp & the opening closed. Clip your threads off. It’s now ready to use!
That’s all there is to it! Have fun & choose the fabric that will match your decor.