Binding-less Placemats Tutorial

Hello again, I know its been a while... well more than a while since I made my last post. For some reason school, work, and life got in the way and I got very behind. But I'm back now! I will try to post a few things a month for the next few months, and then after that I am going to try and post even more, since then I will officially be done my Undergraduate Degree and in theory should have more time to devote to showing you how to do cool things with your sewing machine and other crafty things that I try out! Doesn't that sound fun?

Well now to what you probably actually care about - How to make bindingless placemats! This tutorial gives you the amounts of needed items for 2 placemats, but if you need to do more just double or triple or possibly even quadruple the amounts of the initial fabric squares and make as many as you want.

What you need:
A sewing machine (unless you are a very determined person and you really love hand sewing)
1/2 a meter of a fabric (This will be the larger squares on the mats - mine are blue)
1/4 a meter of a different fabric (This will be one of the smaller squares - mine are light tan)
1/4 a meter another different fabric (This will be the other smaller squares - mine are dark tan)
1/2 a meter of backing fabric (Mine is green)
Thread (Quilting thread works best here)
Iron and Ironing Board
Rotary Cutter and Mat (or scissors)
Ruler

1. Start by cutting 6 squares 6 1/2'' by 6 1/2'' from the  first fabric:

2. Then cut 12 squares 3 1/2'' by 3 1/2'' from the second fabric and repeat this step with the third fabric:

3. Next cut 2 pieces 12 1/2'' by 18 1/2'' pieces form the fourth fabric which will make up the backing of the placemats:

This will give you something amounting to this: 

4. Now take one of each colour of the smaller squares and sew them together using a 1/4'' seam (This is the seam I will be using the entire way through this tutorial and some machine may have it built in so check if yours does, sometimes its called a quilting stitch), fronts together along one side. I placed them into a square to get an idea of what they would look like first which you can see below just for the first one:

Then I placed them on top of each other fronts together like so:

Then I sewed them together resulting in this:

Then I did this many times sewing together each light tan square to a dark tan square giving me a pile that looks like this:

5. Now before we sew these rectangles together to make squares we need to iron their seams flat. This may sound unnecessary but its not, if you don't believe me see take a look at my other post that discusses why ironing is important. 

6. Okay now that you have ironed All of your seams we can make the squares out of your rectangles. Place two rectangles ensuring that a light piece is over a dark piece on both sides with fronts together and sew them together. Be careful when going over your other seems so as they don't get pulled to either side. 

Repeat step 6 with all the rest of the rectangles which will give you 6 chequered squares. 

7. Take all of the chequered squares that you just made and iron down all of their seems which you can see in the last photo above

8. Now we want to take these squares and connect them with our single coloured squares into 4 rectangles which we will then connect. I find it helps to lay it out first so lay out your blocks like this first:

 So now that you can easily see what you need to do. Start by taking one of your chequered squares and place it fronts together with a single coloured square then sew them together. Then on the unsewn edge of the solid coloured square sew another chequered square. (NOTE: if you have patterns on your fabric make sure they are all facing the same direction! I know this can be hard but don't let it frustrate you a stitch ripper can fix all). In the end you should have something that looks like this: 

Next do the bottom row in the same manner but this time sew a solid square, fronts together, with a chequered square. Then sew another solid square to the unsewn edge of the chequered square.

You will want to repeat the entirety of step 8 with your other blocks to create the rectangles for the front of the second placemat. It helps at this point to keep the strips separated into which mat they go with so that you don't accidentally sew two of the wrong strips together.

9. We want to connect these strips now into the front of our placemats. So place the two strips for the first placemat fronts together and sew along what you want to be the centre seam (careful of your patterns staying right side up). Remember to try to keep the points of each block lined up when you sew them together. You should end up with something like this:

Repeat step 9 for your second placemat front

10. Okay, now that we have our fronts we want to connect them to the backs which is where the bindingless part comes in. Take your piece of fabric  meant for backing (sized 12 1/2'' by 18 1/2'') and place it fronts together with the placemat front you just made.

Line all the edges up best you can and then PIN!

Then you want to sew all the around the edge EXCEPT for a 3 inch opening which I have made on the right hand and can be seem somewhat clearly on the second image below. On either side of this opening make sure you reinforce the start and end of the stitch by either doing a reverse stitch or if your sewing machine has this option a Fix stitch. I find that a reverse stitch secures best here but at other points you may want to use a fix stitch if possible.

Now using the hole you made pull the inside fabric outwards this will turn the placemat right side out. 

Giving you this:

11. Pin shut the opening by tucking the raw edge in and pinning (sorry I didn't take a photo here).

12. At this point we are going to "quilt", well not really but we are going to do something close to it! Its not technically quilting since there is no third piece of fabric in the middle but that's okay its great practice. If you have a walking foot now if the time you want to grab, if not that's okay just use your normal foot. A walking foot generally looks something like this: 

Follow your foots instructions for attachment to your machine. All the walking foot does is give you better control and because it has feed dogs (those teethy bits that pull your fabric through the machine) of its own it helps to keep multiple pieces of fabric together.

So now that you've got foot all ready or you are just using your regular foot you are ready to start sewing. Essentially you want to outline all of the seams on your placemat. BUT you have to do this from the middle outwards to prevent any bunching. Where you want to sew is just barely to the left or right of the seam lines on your machine as is shown below: 

This is with the walking foot!

This is with a regular foot (I did one placemat with one type of foot and one with the other)

How you are going to sew I've shown on the image below. You don't have to follow this exactly but remember start in the centre and move outwards (The circle in the middle is the centre point that you should move outwards from for line 1 and 2):

13. This is the fun part! Choose the prettiest stitch on your sewing machine (if your machine doesn't have any decorative stitches or you just hate them for some reason that's okay too! just use a straight stitch). Start at a corner on the side with the opening and sew all the way around the placemat. 

I find that one continual stitch gives the nicest look all the way around - to do this you want to leave the need in the fabric mid-stitch, when you get to the point to turn to the next edge (a 1/4'' left on the edge you're sewing), lift the foot and turn the fabric then place the foot back down and continue sewing. 

So finally you will have a placemat that looks like this: 

Repeat steps 10 - 13 for your second placemat and now you should have a set of two!

Good job! And thank you so much for using my tutorial! If you have any questions please ask in the comments. I hope that you had as much fun doing this as I did and good luck in your future new experiences!

A Few Tips: 10 Things I Wish Someone Had Told Me!

So since I started sewing, quilting and crafting I have learned a few things that I wish someone had told me earlier. So in this post I'm going to give you some of these tips that I've learned so maybe you won't have to learn them the hard way. This is for the new sewer and maybe the experienced sewer too, and hopefully it helps! 

10. Learn to love your stitch ripper. Always have a stitch ripper handy, since if something goes wrong and you can't find one, you're much more likely to give up and just leave it or not go back to the project (or at least I know I am).

9. Know your fabrics. When making something you really do want to use fabric that are made of the same materials. This is because if you go to wash it and you have some polyester blend and some cotton fabrics then they may shrink or move in different ways ruining all your hard work! 

8. Read the whole pattern/tutorial first! The worst thing is getting half way through a project and realizing you don't have something you need, or don't know how to do something in the project, or the worst of all that you've made a horrible mistake and have to start again! So I usually take 5 minutes to read through the entire  (yes I know its a lot), project before starting.

7. Be creative, use your decorative stitches! So many machines these days come with these so may as well use them! Learn what your decorative stitches look like (if your machine has them). I love mine, and you really can use them in so many places so try and be creative! 

PS. I will try and put in my future tutorials where I may put a decorative stitch or where it may be nice so that if you're not creative (and that's just fine!) then you can still use those stitches that so often are never used on a machine. 

6. Know your machine. Make sure you understand how to lock a stitch on your machine (whether its a fix or just reversing at the start and end of each stitch line), what feet you have and what they are best for, and so on. I find it best here to sit down and read your manual and try all the things it says you can do on scrap fabric so that when you want to use these features you can and don't have to learn later.

5. Don't be afraid. I can't tell you how many times I've come across a pattern and had no idea what half of it meant, and I still come across this (hence the experienced beginner!). Don't get scared and not try the pattern, try the internet for video tutorials, tips, and definitions of how to do things or what things are! I learned a lot of what I now know this way, so use all that the internet offers. Also don't be afraid to ask, you can comment on this blog and I will try and help you, or you can ask at your local sewing or quilting store (the people at my fabric shops arn't very nice so I go to quilting shops where everyone is very helpful, this is just my, and some friends, experience though so try your local stores!) 

4. Have a tidy work space. Well at least at the beginning of a project, this makes things a lot easier to lay out and see what's going on while you work your way through the project. Too many times have I sewed a piece of cut off (no scrap) fabric to a good piece, and then had to find my stitch ripper (see # 10) and then start that part all over again.

3. Iron, iron everything! When you iron your seams (I usually split in the middle) you really get a better finished product. I know I curse my iron too every time I have to get it out and use but it truly does help! They also sell little irons meant just for seams that a lot of people love, I've never tried one but it may be an option for you! 

2. Find what best for you. Try lots of different things, and figure out what works the best for you when you're sewing, so if you really really really hate irons (even more than me, which would have to be an awful lot!) then don't use them for most of your projects. So sew lots and lots, and this will help you become a better, since as we all know practice makes perfect! 

1. Pin pin pin! I know its time consuming but it really does give you better finished project. This is really something I've had to learn the hard way ... and I still convince myself that I can do something without pins, and then I find out once again that I was wrong. I also love pins with glass heads so you can iron right over them, but if I'm quilting I use longer ones with little yellow flower heads (most stores have both).

Heated Neck Wrap Tutorial

In this tutorial I'm going to show you how to make a neck heat wrap, with a cover too! 

First you will need: 

1/2 meter of exterior fabric

1/2 meter of interior fabric (this will not be seen)

Thread 

Three medium buttons

A sewing machine 

Iron and ironing board

A funnel (not needed but helpful)

Rotary cutter and mat (or scissors)

Rice (I use basmati but you can you what ever you like, just not instant as it may cook!)

1. Cut a 12'' by 24'' square of the interior fabric.

Cut a 12.75'' by 25.5'' square of the exterior fabric

2. Take the interior fabric and  fold it and half and iron. If your fabric has a right side like mine does then make sure right sides are together. Repeat this for the exterior fabric. 

3. Sew along the long edge and one of the short sides with a 1/2'' seem (all seams from now on are assumed 1/2'') 

4. Now turn the interior fabric so that the right side of the fabric is now on the outside 

5. Now fold the interior fabric in half except for a 1/2 '' left at the open end of the fabric (seam allowance) and iron.

6. Fold the fabric in half again (still leaving the 1/2'' at the open end) and iron and then unfold. You will now have 3 creases which you will sew along to make compartments for the rice. 

7. Now find a funnel (if you don't have one that's okay I don't either) and pour rice into the interior fabric bag you've made. I filled each of my compartments half full (that is half full to the lowest crease line) but you can fill yours more or less.  

8. Then sew along the marked crease making sure that all of the rice is clear of the needles path! I double stitched this line but I'm probably just being safe. 

9. Then repeat steps 8 and 9 for the next 2 compartments. Before filling your final compartment fold the edge of the open end in a 1/2'' and then pin and iron as shown below. 

10. Now fill the last compartment pin the end shut and then sew the end shut. I triple stitched here just to secure it, as you don't want any rice to fall out!

11. You should now have something that looks like this: 

12. Take your exterior fabric and sew the long edge and one short edge.

13. Trim down your seams so that you have a 1/4'' seam (this will reduce bulk). Also trim the corner 

14. Now fold the open end a half inch in and iron this (it helps to pin here especially if you have iron safe pins or are every careful with your iron).

15. Fold the edge in again and pin then iron again

16. Now sew all the way around this edge (I used a straight stitch here but you may use a decorative stitch here too if your sewing machine has one you like!).

17. Turn the exterior bag right side out now. 

18. Now take the interior heat bag that you made and insert it into the exterior bag you made to ensure they fit and to help with marking the coming button holes and button placements. 

19. Now measure where your button holes will go, you want 3 evenly spaced out holes along one side of your open end of exterior fabric (be sure to place your buttons on top just to see how far up the bag they need to go so as not to hang off the side) as you can see where I've put mine below... 

20. Now sew your buttons on the inside of your exterior bag so that they match up with the top button holes you made. 

21. And now you should have a completed heated neck wrap! The cover is washable too! 

Now just heat it in the microwave for a minute or two (make sure it's not too hot!) And you're good to go!

Thank you very much for trying my tutorial and I will be posting another one in the next two weeks so be sure to check back!