Sewing Placemats Personalized with Photos

Whether you are hosting a birthday party or a holiday get together, sewing placemats is a great project to personalize the table setting. Tara Rex shows you how you can add printed photos, fabric pieces and free motion stitching to your placemat to make each one unique.

Photo Printing

Adding photos when sewing placemats can be a fun alternative to name cards to let everyone know where to sit around a table. Tara shows several different kinds of fabric sheets that can be used with inkjet printers to print photos directly onto fabric to use for this or any other sewing project. She explains the difference between some of the products out there and shares which one she prefers to use. Photos can be printed onto the fabric sheets in either black and white or color, and after allowing to dry or heat setting, depending on the manufacturer’s instructions, will be permanent.

Embellish

Sewing placemats can also be a good scrap fabric project, as you can use small pieces of fabric as embellishments on the surface. Tara shows how she likes to arrange pieces of fabric on the surface of the placemat and audition them until she has found the look she likes best. Once that has been decided, she uses a spray adhesive to hold the fabric pieces in place. Tara then shows how to free motion stitch on the surface to hold the fabric in place as well as add extra design. She explains how you can follow a design on the fabric or make up your own as you go. After the background pieces have been stitched, Tara shows how to add the printed photos using a fusible web and then add more fabric and stitching if desired. These techniques can be used on store bought placemats as shown or you can use the same idea when sewing placemats with the serge along technique.