How to make Red and White Place Mats by Cherry Menlove

It’s Friday so we’re getting crafty!

A Super Simple Way to Fashion Some Place Mats!

I can often remember being so pleased to find new craft projects to get my teeth into on a Friday. If I didn’t already have plans for the upcoming weekend then I would be able to head off to the craft store or shop and purchase all of the materials needed. So with this in mind I will endeavour to post all of my crafty projects on the day of Friday & as early as possible. This way if a project takes your fancy you have a couple of days to surf the internet and browse through buttons and yarn in order to make your project entirely unique to you.

St George’s Day is fast approaching (23rd April) & we wanted to tie this Friday’s craft project into the celebration and what better way to do that than for something for the table. We decided to make some very cheery red and white place mats in recognition of our English flag. A red and white design that is fortunately rather fetching (not as cool as the Brazilian flag, but one can’t have it all)

Materials needed-

4 pieces of red felt (9×12 inches)

4 pieces of white felt (9×12 inches)

Mixture of small white buttons

1.5 metres (approx) of cotton & gingham ribbon

1.5 metres (approx) of red ric-rac

Needles

Red and white embroidery thread (Anchor or DMC)

Glue gun

Pair of sharp scissors

Allow approx 20mins to make each place mat.

We made 2 red place mats and 2 white place mats, with the additional felt saved to decorate. You can obviously choose which ever colours you like and this is part of the fun with this particular project.

For the heart design we used two different sized cookie cutters for the shapes but cardboard templates are just as effective and can be made into any pattern/shape you like.

The ric-rac was glued (to save time) on to the edges of the felt as we found that adding an edge DOES give a neater finish. Once the glue had dried (which only takes a couple of minutes) the hearts were then ready to be sewed over each of the four corners. The larger cookie cutter was used for the heart in the middle of the mat and once the heart had been glued firmly in place it made it easier to sew the red and white gingham ribbon around it. Ruche the ribbon gently around the heart as it is sewn into place as this adds texture and in actual fact makes it easier to apply.

With the domino mat the spots were pinned on first; a) to ensure that that they all lined up b) to stop them moving around as they were sewn on. (I have made this mistake before on another similar item and I ended up having to unpick it all as it was wonky!)

We decided that the buttons would be too bumpy to rest a plate on so we positioned them at the top of each corner and sewed them on but only after a ric-rac trim was added.

Red & White Felt Placemats 8 - cherry menlove

Our ‘Row of Beach Huts’ place mat was designed by using a cardboard template. When we had cut out our little felt houses we sewed them on individually (using back-stitch) and added a cute little french knot for the door handle. This time a red and white country gingham trim was glued on as edging.

The good thing about making these place mats is that you can be as creative and colourful as you like and they will remain the pretty base of your place settings for many gatherings to come.

Of course we had to have at least one mat that resembled the St George’s cross. If you like this design but are not English then affix the ric-rac a little off centre on the white flag shaped square. This works just as well.

I’ve already decided to make another set of these in different colourways as they are very easy and I am always in need of more place mats. A Summer design that will go perfectly with a bowl of Strawberry’s and a pitcher of homemade lemonade. Ahhhhhhh, the halcyon days of Summer are just around the corner and there’s HUGE change afoot here. I promise to keep you all in the loop but I feel a West Sussex Summer calling my name.

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