#SEWING: Recycling Old Table Covers Into Placemats

My mother-in-law gave me old table covers the last time they visited us this year but they were all too small for my dining table. I decided to recycle and reuse them by turning them into placemats. I wouldn’t throw these in the washer to clean. A good wipe after every use would suffice.

For the plain orange and wine print covers, I sewed them back to back so I could flip the mats. They’re perfect for Fall season.

For the trim, I used an old maroon round fabric table cover as bias. I don’t have a round table anymore but I kept the table cover because I can always fold it and have used as a decor. Good thing I’ve kept it and now put into other use. I just cut the fabric into wide strips, folded, ironed, then sewed around the edges.

I had enough material to make cup mats too. The stitching is not perfect coz this is when I was having problems with the thread tension and when that happens I start to get frustrated. It all worked out in the end, albeit imperfect, because I still got 8 mats to match.

Now I also have “new” Christmas season placemats. I used white fabric to sew as the bottom part. I didn’t have anything to create a tonal(or anything Christmassy) bias though for these mats so I just used the extras from the same cover to create the trims.