Another guest post! This one comes from the lovely Maura of the UK. Maura is one of our Facebook fans and she uploaded the picture below onto our Facebook page. Needless to say, we were impressed and I thought: This is something our readers will love!
Ask and you shall receive: read on as Maura walks us though this Design-It-Yourself project. Thanks Maura! (Oh yeah - and check out another idea, right at the bottom, that she made from a swatch of Herbarium - Deep Navy Blue by Stig Lindberg from the Bemz Designer Collection. Isn't she creative?)
After filling in an online questionnaire, the good people at Bemz were kind enough to send me a tote bag made from one of their prints: Josephine by the Swedish designer Göta Trägårdh (1904-1984), one of the founders of the Beckmans design school in 1939 & known for her "pencil line look".
I make my own bags, so I used the beautiful fabric to make a placemat, coaster & napkin ring set for two. If you have any Bemz fabric scraps left over from your last project, this would be an ideal way to use them up. If you are buying new, then 30cm of 150cm wide fabric will be plenty.
You will also need:
- Felt in a toning colour – about 30cm if bought from a roll, or 3 x 30cm squares
- Fusible web (e.g. Bondaweb, Steam-a-Seam 2 or MistyFuse)
- Bias tape, 4cm wide, cut from a Fat Quarter of quilting cotton (50cm x 55cm). If you are buying bias tape, you will need about 4m.
- Toning thread.
Just to let you know, the placemats are the easiest to make, the coasters are a little fiddly, and the napkin rings are maddening, so bear this in mind when you plan your sewing.
Placemats:
For the placemat template, I drew round a large plate with tailor’s chalk. Cut out 2 circles in Bemz fabric, leaving a margin of about 1cm round. Cut out 2 more from the felt.
Following the instructions for your brand of fusible web, bond the fusible web to the felt, protecting your iron with a sheet of baking parchment. Remove the backing paper from the fusible web (now attached to the felt) & place (fusible side down) onto the back of the Bemz fabric circle. Press again with your iron (from the felt side, as the heat will penetrate more easily). Allow to cool. Cut out your circles neatly.
For the bias binding, I cut all I needed from a Fat Quarter of fabric (that’s a piece about 50cm x 55cm). Cut the 4cm strips at a 45 degree angle to the selvedge, as this allows the fabric to stretch around curves. Join the strips with a diagonal seam, as it is less bulky (overlap 2 strips at right angles and sew as shown – trim, then press the seam open).
Begin sewing on the front of the placemat, and with a small fold on the end of the bias tape. Sew with a 1cm seam, curling the bias tape around the circle as you go, and taking care not to stretch it. Keep sewing until the tape overlaps at the beginning again. Trim the end.
Ease the tape over the edge of the circle, fold the overlapping fabric in half and pin to the felt on the underside of the mat. Work carefully where the ends of the tape meet, folding to make a neat finish. Sew by hand to the felt. Press with plenty of steam: this will help the mat to lie flat.
Coasters:
Follow the placemat instructions, cut 2 coasters using a CD as the circle template and make them up in the same way.
Napkin rings:
Cut a rectangle of Bemz fabric 9cm x 17cm, and the same again in felt. Bond the felt to the Bemz fabric as for the placemats. Cut this into two pieces 4.5cm x 17cm. The example in the photos is smaller, as it was all I had left to use as a demonstration piece.
Using a strip of bias binding about 7cm long, sew to the Bemz fabric on one of the short ends, taking a smaller seam – about 0.5cm. Fold the tape to the back and back on itself again, trapping the other end of the ring – the binding will form roughly an “s” shape in cross-section. Sew by hand through all the layers, attaching the binding to the felt on both sides of the length of tape.
Sew bias binding to both raw edges of the ring. Turning the ring inside out may help it to fit under your machine, otherwise, sew by hand.
Here's the finished product again: all that from one tote bag? Impressive!
And here is the pin cushion Maura made from a simple swatch. Now this is a very clever woman! Thanks again Maura, for sharing your time and creativity and your idea. Find out more about Maura's own creations on her blog, Sky Parlour Designs or pick up something made by Maura here.
If you have a great Design-It-Yourself idea that you would like to share, send it along to me at blog [at] bemz [dot] com.
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