Want to try sewing your own simple placemat pattern? If you’ve already tried the colorblocked version in the first part or my easy placemats sewing tutorial you’ll find it’s easy to customize! The first part of the tutorial will outline the details of how to sew together the placemats, in this one we’ll talk more about customizing the pattern design so that it’s perfect for your home.
Choosing your colors
One of my favorite parts of making quilts and other home goods is exploring and experimenting with different color palettes. If you are looking for a simple, minimal addition to your table, a neutral analogous palette might be perfect. I, personally, love a pop of color on my table especially when it’s paired with a neutral. I think bright colors work best when they are alone in the palette can stand out. But the decision is totally yours! Here are some of my favorite palettes of Kona cotton for inspration.
Customizing your design & doing the quilt math
Any seasoned quilter knows that you could make our placemat designs out of almost whatever shape you want. Since we’re keeping things basic and minimal, we’re going to stick with rectangles for now.
Let’s assume that we want a 14”x18’ placemat and we aren’t going to do any contrasting, just solid colors on either side.
You may remember from the tutorial that all seam allowances when we sew the placemat together are 1/4”. To account for that seam allowance, we need to add 1/4” of fabric to the front and back piece. That means we need to cut out 14.5”x18.5” for our front and back pieces. Once they are sewn together with the 1/4” seam allowance, they will be 14”x18”. Perfect! That’s our most basic placemat and we know exactly what we need to cut out.
The key step of the above calculation is adding .5” to each piece to allow for seam allowances on either side. This math will get more complicated the more complicated your design becomes – but it’ll stay straightforward if you’re just playing with rectangles.
Let’s look at a few other examples. For a vertical split down the middle, we would have the following pieces:
We can also try adding a third color:
Create the placemats sewing pattern that’s right for you
Now it’s your turn to create your own placemats sewing pattern! I find that graph paper is a SUPER helpful way to draw out my ideas for projects like this. Let each square of the paper equal an 1 inch and start experimenting. Remember, we’re adding 1/2” to accommodate a 1/4” on either side of the fabric so it’s important that if you stick with that 1/4” seam allowance.
Thanks for reading my placemats sewing tutorial! Now that you have a basic idea of how to create your own designs you can make an amazing, minimal mix + match set for your dining table! Check out my tutorials (part 1 & part 2) for how I sew mine! I’d love to see any placemats you make – tag me on Instagram @stitchin_camaro.
Lauren says
I love the simple design and easy to follow instructions. Great tip about fusing the fusible fleece to the backing to avoid unsightly creases. Did you say you have a favorite brand of fleece?