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St. Patrick’s Day Reversible Placemats

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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.

St. Patrick's Day Reversible Placemat

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.

Finished St. Patrick's Day Placemats

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.

St. Patrick’s Day Tablescape

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St. Patrick’s Day is almost here.  It’s time to decorate for another holiday!  I love decorating for the holidays.  This tablescape was so much fun to make.  Like I’ve said before, I can see a project finished in my mind’s eye.  This one took me on a search for a Leprechaun.  It all came together when I stopped at Michaels Arts & Crafts store.

It was so much fun searching for the fabrics that I wanted.  (I found these at JoAnn Fabrics)  Naturally, since I’m a sewer, I had to make some reversible placemats (which I’ll show you how to make in the next post).  And the St. Patrick’s Day Centerpiece is one that I just fell in love with.

I like having two looks,  a patterned side & a solid side.

I chose clear plates for this side so the ‘Kiss Me, I’m Irish’ ribbon would show through.

Add some favors for fun.

                        

Add some ‘coin’ scatter to finish it off.

As usual, I’ll be showing you how to make the placemats, the centerpiece & the candle that’s in the background.

Hope you enjoyed seeing this as much as I enjoyed making it.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day everyone!

Valentine’s Day Candle

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What do you do with a plain white pillar candle?  Decorate it, of course!  I found some 3″ x 6′ pillar candles on sale, and naturally, I couldn’t resist them.  But they are plain.  I wanted something for Valentine’s Day.

What you’ll need:

1- 3″ x 6″ pillar candle

measuring tape

Chain (Walmart jewelry making section)

Red heart shaped rhinestones (Michaels)

Straight pins

Double faced tape Continue reading →

Repurposed Valentine’s Day Centerpiece

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I love after Christmas bargains.  Such pretty things at half the price.  I was shopping at Walmart when I found this Better Homes & Gardens centerpiece.  I couldn’t resist it.  But its design limited me to Christmas.  I had a better idea:

What you’ll need:

Centerpiece (Walmart)

Wire Cutters

Silk Ivy bush (JoAnn Fabrics), cut apart at base

Silk Rose Bush (JoAnn Fabrics), cut apart at base

Red heart shaped scatter stones (Dollar Store)

12″ x 12″ mirror tile (Walmart)

Votive candles Continue reading →

Valentine’s Day Place Setting

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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.