>Home>Craft Ideas>Sewing>Quilted Christmas Place Mats

Quilted Christmas Place Mat

Festive Holiday Decorations

Clever Christmas Place Mats with Built-In Silverware Pockets

Delight your family Christmas morn with these clever place mats at the breakfast table. Next year, they’ll start asking for them right after Thanksgiving. Guaranteed!

The built-in - or rather sewn-in - Christmas stocking pockets make it fun for kids to set the table as well as a fun way to teach them where the utensils should be placed.

Christmas Place Mat Materials

• Christmas fabric in two different prints - example measures 17 ½ by 12 inches and requires ½ yard of 36-inch wide fabric per place mat; ¼ yard of the second design will give you enough fabric for 7 stockings for 3 ½ place mats
• Quilt batting - enough for each place mat you are making plus two stockings each for silverware pockets
• Scribbles 3D Fabric Paints in gold and red
• Wrights Wide Bias Tape in green - each place mat requires approximately 56 inches
• Sewing machine
• Needle and thread
• Sewing pins
• Wrights red and green rick rack
• Aleene’s Ok to Wash It fabric glue
• Printout of stocking template

How to Make the Placemat

Open a new word processing program document. Click on the template above and copy. Paste the template into the new document.

Click on the image and move it to the top left on the page. Move the cursor over the lower right corner until you can grab the corner and stretch the template so that the stocking measures approximately 6 ½ inches tall by 5 inches wide at the toe. [The template will be 7 ½ by 5 ¾.]

Print.

Wash and iron fabrics. Iron the bias tape leaving the folds as they are.

Optional Tip: Since the edges will not be hemmed but rather will be bound in bias tape, pinking shears can be used to minimize raveling as you work.

For each place mat, cut two rounded rectangles measuring 17 ½ by 12 inches of the main fabric and one of the batting.

Cut one stocking from the second fabric and then turn the pattern over to cut another facing the other direction. Cut one piece of the batting for each stocking.

For the place mat, place first fabric piece right side down on your work surface, then the batting and place the other fabric piece right side up on top.

Lining up the edges, pin all three layers together.

Open up the bias tape and make a ½" fold at the very beginning. Pin one edge of the tape even with the edge of the mat. This will be the front of the mat.

The bias tape will later be turned to the back side and sewn to complete the binding.

Stitch in the first fold from the edge all around the mat making sure not to have any tucks in the corners.

You will have a 3/8 inch seam all around the mat when done. End by cutting the tape off just past the folded end of the tape.

Make little clips in the seam allowance in the corners for smooth curves.

Turn the stitched tape to the back side of the mat and pin as shown below.

On the front side, place pins along the little ditch created where the bias tape was just stitched to the main fabric.

These pins will secure the bias tape folded over the back of the place mat, so you can remove the pins from the back (last picture) before running the mat through the sewing machine.

With the place mat right side up, stitch all around keeping your stitches close to the bias tape. In quilting, this is called "stitching in the ditch" and will give a nice finished look on both sides.

Press all the edges flat.

On the back of each stocking, place a batting piece and pin in place. Cut away 3/8 inch of batting all around.

Fold the fabric over the batting and pin in place on the front.

Topstitch along the edge of the stocking.

Place two stockings on the mat where desired. Toes can go in or out as you prefer.

Place a couple of pins in each stocking to hold in place.

Stitch each stocking down onto the mat from top to toe and back up to the top, leaving the stocking top open to hold the silverware.

This can be done by machine or by hand. If using the machine, choose a small fairly close zig zag stitch.

Press the stockings and the mat.

Now to embellish.

Weave a strand of red rick rack together with one of green. Measure across the top of each stocking and cut the woven rick rack to fit. Use fabric glue to glue in place.

Use gold 3D paint to run little irregular lines down from the rick rack and place a small ball of paint on the end of each line.

Use red 3D paint to define the heel and toe of each stocking.

Embellishing is the fun part so go wild. Just remember what you put on the place mats must stand up to a gentle cycle wash.

After washing, lay flat or hang to dry. Press on the back side if needed using low to medium heat.

  | Top | Sewing | Crafts | Home |