These place mats are super, super easy and you only need 1 piece of burlap and one smaller piece of patterned fabric, scissors and a sewing machine. All the stitching is top-stitching, making it a breeze to whip these up. We’ve added the Place mat_Template for you to download, but you can use any shape you like. Obviously we’ve aimed these toward a Christmas theme, but you can make this for any season! Just swap out the shape you plan to add!
First gather all of your materials.
Now transfer the template to your fabric using a pencil.
Cut the tree out carefully.
Cut out your burlap (hessian) to the required measurements.
IMPORTANT: When cutting out the hessian, avoid using the edge of the fabric as it’s much harder to pull the threads out of this section.
Top stitch around the entire place mat at 1 inch.
Now carefully pull out the horizontal threads, thus creating a fringe.
If you’ve caught several horizontal rows of thread in the hessian, you’ll need to snip the hessian close to the thread where it merges into the next line. This allows you to pull them out without distorting the top stitching you added.
Repeat the thread pulling until all four sides have been done.
Now place your Christmas tree shape in the bottom corner of the place mat. If you don’t want it there, just place it elsewhere and pin it in place.
Now top stitch around the tree fairly close to the edge.
Voila! All done. Once you have the hang of it, these can be whipped up in no time and given the cost of burlap, you can create a lot of these for next to nothing. Of course, you can make them larger all smaller depending on your crockery size. I think ours could have done with me slightly larger so that the tree is completely visible when places are set.
