SUNSET PLACEMAT
MAKE EVERY MEALTIME A SPECIAL OCCASION WITH THESE EASY-SEW CITYSCAPE PLACEMATS, IDEAL FOR STASH FABRICS AND THREADS
Reclaim mealtimes with a set of these
gorgeous machine-stitched table mats
GETTIING STARTED
Prepare your sewing machine by attaching a freemotion embroidery or darning foot. Next, drop the feed dogs – the mechanism that grips and pulls fabric through your sewing machine. For this project, you don’t need to place your fabric in an embroidery hoop for the machine stitching part or when you add the house details, such as the windows, by hand later on – the fabric is sturdy enough to stitch on without a hoop. Before you begin working with your machine, though, start with test fabric to make sure the tension is correct and the bottom thread doesn’t show though. Remember the stitch length is determined by the speed at which you stitch – the faster you go, the shorter your stitches will be. When machine embroidering, try to work in one continuous line. If you do need to stop, make sure you lower the foot so you don’t have jumps in your stitching.
MATERIALS
Cotton fabric: 53x33cm, pink x2; 19x60cm, yellow; 50x15cm, terracotta; 25x25cm, blue and 60x10cm, natural cotton
Stranded cotton: 1 skein each of green, peach and turquoise
Machine cotton: black, blue, pink, terracotta and yellow
Sewing machine with standard foot and freemotion or darning foot Bondaweb: 50x50cm
Basic embroidery kit
STITCHES USED
Satin Stitch, Straight Stitch NOTES
Find the templates on p79. RS = right side(s).
01 Transfer the bands of the sunset from template 1 onto the paper side of your Bondaweb piece and cut along the lines.
Now, iron the Bondaweb onto the fabrics; the yellow should be the largest, then the terracotta and finally the small corner piece should be blue. Cut around each piece using a rotary cutter and mat as these will make it easier to cut really straight lines and to line up each section. However, you can also use fabric scissors if you don’t have a rotary cutter.
02 Peel off the backing paper and arrange the pieces onto one of the pink panels leaving a 1.5cm gap at the top and sides, but making sure all of the pieces line up neatly with no gaps between the colours. Iron them down very carefully, pressing downward with your iron instead of moving from side to side, so as not to move the pieces. Once all the fabrics are in position, machine stitch around each piece with a straight stitch about 2mm from the edge using machine thread that matches the fabric underneath.
03 ransfer just the outline of the houses from template 1 onto more Bondaweb. Roughly cut around the houses with a 2mm border and iron this onto the natural cotton fabric using the same method as in step 2.
04 IRON the houses in place along the bottom of the placemat, 3cm up from the edge. Transfer the details of the houses from template 2 onto your natural cotton fabric using your preferred method.
05 Attach your freemotion or darning foot, drop the feed dogs on your machine and stitch the design outlines in black. As you move onto each new section of the design, reverse your stitching over itself once. This will prevent it from unravelling once you trim away the trailing threads from the front of the placemat when you’ve finished stitching.
06 Now, add a touch of colour by filling in some of the windows and doors of the houses by hand. Use Satin Stitch with two strands of either green, peach or turquoise. Add some leaf shapes to one of the houses using Straight Stitch in two strands of green. Press the whole design. With the RS facing, pin the stitched panel together with your remaining pink panel of fabric. Switch your machine back to its standard settings and sew a 2cm seam around the outer edge using pink straight stitch, leaving an 8cm gap for turning. Clip the corners, turn through and then press. Topstitch around the outside of the placemat, 3mm in from the edge, to finish.