Photo Placemats

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Muslin fabric comes cheap at Wal-Mart and it is versatile so it often becomes my fabric of choice for pillows and other home decor. In this case, I chose muslin for some new dining table place mats.

I have a place mat pattern that measures 18 x 13 1/2. I cut out 8 pieces in this size to make four place mats.

The next thing I did was get out my stash of photo album inserts. I have several packs that were free when I was teaching. I have so many just stacked in the basement. My brain has been working to figure out a way to put these photo pages to good use, other than what they were intended for.

I cut out 4 rectangles that fit a 4 x 6 photo. I sewed one of these onto 4 different pieces of muslin in the bottom left hand corner. I sewed 3 sides and left one open in order to insert a photo.

Next, I got out this ribbon that comes already ruffled at Hobby Lobby. I rolled it around and flattened it creating a flower that I was happy with and pinned it together. I then hand stitched the flower to the top left corner of the photo insert.

My next step was to cut out 4 pieces of batting for each place mat. I then put the 2 pieces of muslin right sides together. I added the piece of batting to the back and pinned them all together.

I took the layered pieces to the sewing machine and stitched on all sides leaving an opening in the bottom middle for flipping. I snipped off each corner and flipped them right side out.

I folded in the opening and ironed it down so it would be ready to sew. I changed the thread to black, which if I had it to do over again, I would have also used black thread to sew on the photo insert. Oh, well.

I sewed all 4 sides completely on the outside to close up the opening at the bottom and finish it all up.

My final step was to insert a current favorite photo into each place mat. I now had myself 4 photo place mats for our dining table...

They are simple and personal, just the way I like things in my home...

I'm sure the photos will be changed often. It would be fun to make the photos related to different holidays too as they come around. I also had the idea of making a photo table runner out of muslin with a bunch of photo inserts placed down the middle to hold family photos. But that is for another day...

Thanks for visiting! Make sure you come back tomorrow because Lemon Tree Creations is hosting our first ever GIVEAWAY! How fun is that? I am so excited.

Also, go visit these parties and check out some amazing creations by bloggers everywhere!

Happy Tuesday!