Quick Dining Room Update - Simple Placemats

I found some great inexpensive fabric at the Florence Eiseman sale a few weeks ago and I wasn't sure what I wanted to do with it. My mom suggested making placemats, which I thought was a great idea! The fabric is fairly light weight, so I ran to the fabric store to purchase some mid-weight interfacing, in order to make the placemats more substantial. I decided to make them reversible with the same pattern on each side (only because I LOVE the fabric), but you can definitely mix it up and have two separate looks. Here are the tools/items you will need to make 6 placemats:

• 2 1/2  yards of fabric  
• 2 1/2 yards of interfacing
• Thread
• Iron
• Press cloth
• Sewing Machine

The instructions on how to make the placemats are as follows;

1. Cut twelve 15x20 inch rectangles from your fabric
2. Cut six 14x19 inch rectangles from your mid-weight interfacing
3. Heat your iron to the wool/steam setting. Place the rough side of the fusible interfacing against the wrong side of 6 printed fabric rectangles. Lay the two pieces down with the interfacing on top. You should have 1/2 inch of fabric showing from underneath the interfacing on all sides.
4. Dampen a press cloth (usually muslin) and lay over interfacing. Start at one corner and press the iron down firmly holding it still over that area for 15 seconds. Lift the iron straight up, and repeat the process over a different area. Keep doing this to press the entire piece of fabric. Hint: press cloth should be dry after 15 seconds of pressing.
5. Take two pieces of fabric (one with interfacing, one without) and place the right/printed sides together. Pin all edges in order to hold them together.
6. Sew around the edges with a 1/2 inch seam allowance. Make sure to leave a 3-inch opening in order to turn the placemats right-side-out. (I usually reinforce the area outside the opening, so the stitching doesn't come out).
7. Turn the placemat right side out through the 3-inch opening. Use a dull knife/scissors to push out the corners. Turn the fabric edges along the opening to the inside of the placemat 1/2 inch. Iron the folded edges and the rest of the placemat to smooth the seams and hold the folds.
8. Sew around the placemat with an 1/4-inch seam allowance.

It took me 2 1/2 hours to complete 6 placemats and now we are ready for Spring!