Easy Placemats

You need heavy-duty interfacing and stabilizer and fabric: two 16 x 21 inch pieces for the foundation and two 3 x 45 inches pieces for the border. You also need fusible web, like Wonder Under. Cut a 15 x 20-inch piece of the interfacing, then cut two pieces of fabric, each slightly larger than the interfacing.

Cut fusible web to fit and iron it to the back of the fabric. Remove the paper backing and iron the fabric to the interfacing.

Do the same thing on the opposite side. You'll end up with a sandwich of fabric/interfacing/fabric.

Cut two strips of border fabric, each 3 inches by 45 inches. Press under 1/4 inch on each long edge, then press the strip in half lengthwise. Cut 3/4-inch strips of Wonder-Under and press one to each side of each strip.

Press a finished strip to the top and bottom of the placemat and trim the edges. Stitch the border in place, close to the folded edge.

Fold under 3/8 of an inch or so on one end of a strip. Slide the placemat under the folded edge and then sandwich the strip around it. Press in place.

Stitch. Repeat on the other side.

One yard of fabric makes four 16-inch napkins, and it took less than an hour to finish all four.

All I did was press under 1/4 inch all the way around and then press that under again, to make a double-folded hem. Then I stitched around the edges. (Straight lines are not my best thing, so I use a small zig-zag stitch. Worked great.)