Placemats

This project was such a no-brainer that I thought I'd have it done in 45 minutes. 

The best laid plans ... sigh

The idea was simple. Turn this pile of six large rectangular dishtowels into six wedge-shaped placemats that work on our round dining room table.

The microfiber-like towels I found at Dollar Tree are about 25 inches wide and 18 inches tall. They're a beautiful shade of red. Super inexpensive. Dressy enough for a Christmas dinner.

I laid one of our daily-use placemats on top, lining up the straight edge of the wedge with the long side of the towel.

Then cut it out with a rotary cutter, leaving the straight edge intact.

The cutting went very quickly. But wow. What a mess it left behind. That fuzz flew everywhere. It took at least 10 minutes to vacuum up the table and floor and under the desk and worktable.

That cleaned up, I went to my serger to give the edges a nice clean finish. I'd purchased new cones of red thread for this project. Since I've not used my machine in ::mumblemumble:: months, I had to re-learn to thread the four spools and fix the tension and all that goes into using the complicated overlock sewing machine.

I tried and tried. After about 2 hours and some *expletive deleted,* I finally gave up, feeling rather defeated. Time for a lunch and grumble break.

I reasoned with myself for a while, realizing I only need these placemats for a single meal. Why not use my tried-and-true old Singer that's been my go-to machine since my high school days. After several experiments, I decided to sew a wide zigzag around the cut edges of the fabric.

It came out ... ok. If my serger had worked, all the edges would look as nice as that top edge. But by using a zig-zag stitch, there was still a lot of fuzzy bits along the curved edge. 

My next idea was to use Frey Check to stabilize the edge. I couldn't find mine. I improvised with some watered down white glue, painted around the edges. I experimented on just two of the placemats, then re-evaluated. No. No. No. It was simply too crusty.

So into the washer and dryer they went. The six completed placemats came out beautifully soft. The fuzzy edges smoothed themselves out. There was plenty of red fluff left in the dryer's lint catcher.

So ... several hours later ... Look!

The placemats are just right! There will be five for dinner on Christmas (six, counting baby Abby). We'll all fit snuggly around our little dining table.

I even found Candy Cane colored plates at Dollar Tree. It's a festive table setting.

I'm so looking forward to hosting Christmas dinner next week!