Placemats

You can find me over at the Spoonflower blog again today, with a post on how to recover an old set of cork-backed placemats for the table. I had an old set of placemats that I was reluctant to let go of, (they were a wedding present) but they had seen WAY better days, for sure. The original image on the placemats were of tulips, which was the flower that we used to decorate the hall where we had our reception (thanks to my mother-in-law for cleverly growing them right on time!), so they were kind of special/sentimental.

There were 6 of them. These are the better looking originals. I was too embarrassed to show anyone the worst ones.

I was pretty reluctant to start on this project as I was really worried it would be a total failure. I thought they'd end up looking so homemade and a bit pathetic. I thought I'd ruin the original placemats...
(even though they were pretty much in a state of disrepair) and that I'd end up having to throw them out (which would have made me sad).

The finished placemats. Ahhh, I'm happy to show off the whole pretty set now!

BUT, they are lovely!! I'm so surprised at how well they came out and even my husband is impressed. He's very supportive and wonderful about what I do, but he's also honest. He'll tell me if something's not right, which I appreciate about him. I used a photo I took of a Calla Lily which was the flower in my wedding bouquet - so the placemats still have a wedding-related theme to me.

I think the biggest tip I can give you about making these yourself, is to make sure you finish the edges with a marker or permanent ink pad. I used black because that's what they'd used on the original placemats, but you could use any color. It just gives such a nice finish to the edge and really blends in the edge of the fabric with the edge of the mat.

You can go and read the full tutorial by clicking here.