Hi again! This is Tara Reed – a Riley Blake fabric designer and artist. You can find me at TaraReed.com, on Instagram and Facebook.
If you are like me, you have at least 10 times as many things you’d LIKE to make or do than you have time for. Creative intentions are often bogged down by other priorities like work, sleep and showers.
Having designed 12 months of placemats – 6 per month for a total of 72 placemats – OF COURSE I want to make and use them all! This tutorial uses the January placemat panel with cute snowmen and fun winter sayings.
I finally had a “DUH!” lightbulb moment.
I didn’t HAVE to use traditional binding, I could just sew 3 layers (placemat, batting and backing) together, turn, press topstitch and quilt them.
I was able to make 6 placemats in just a few hours and I LOVE how they turned out!
Now if you are an avid quilter, you are probably going to balk at this idea – but this post isn’t for you. This is a great sewing for beginners project or a way to get placemats done quickly in between all the other things going on in your busy life.
In this video you will learn how to sew beautiful placemats from a fabric placemat panel WITHOUT having to make and add binding. While binding is great, sometimes you don’t have the time or desire to do it or you want a more modern look.
Visit my blog for written directions.
Making placemats without binding is easy and a huge time saver. The most important step is cutting the placemat panel. If you take you time to get this done correctly your results will be amazing!
SHORTCUTS TO SPECIFIC TOPICS:
00:00 Introduction
00:25 Supplies
01:10 Cutting the placemat panel
03:15 Cutting the backing fabric
04:06 Cutting the batting
05:11 Sew fabric layers
06:29 Quilting
Happy sewing and bon appetit!
🧵 Tara Reed