How to Trim a Placemat

Let your creativity shine through when creating your own placemats. Making placemats is an entertaining family project if you are looking for something to keep everyone busy while still having fun. When you are done creating your placemat, before adding the vinyl to the back, you need to trim the fabric.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Placemat fabric
• Quilter's ruler
• Fabric roller cutter

1. Lay a quilter's ruler along the top edge of the placemat.

2. Go along the edge of the quilter's ruler with the fabric roller cutter to trim the fabric.

3. Pull out all the loose strings and pieces of fabric.

4. Pick up the mat and turn it to another edge so that the edge you want to trim is on top.

5. Place the quilter's ruler along the top edge of the untrimmed side and cut the edge with the fabric roller cutter.

6. Continue all around the placemat until you have trimmed all four sides.

7. Make sure that your fabric is square. Trim up the edges again at this point if you need to.

Tips & Warnings

• Embellish the placemat after trimming the fabric and before adding the vinyl to the placemat. You can sew on various buttons, trim, rick-rack or anything else you would like to further decorate your placemat to add your own personal touch.
• If you do not have a fabric roller cutter, mark the fabric and cut it with scissors. This is a bit harder to do to get the sides straight, however. A fabric roller cutter is by far the best way to trim your placemat.