Project 3: Placemats

I wanted something easy. These placemats were not.

I love the fact that many of my textile projects have deep histories. Of course, they tell the story of the time and place of making. But, especially if you upcycle old clothing and linens, they evoke memories of the "time before" and the "time before that."

So it is with this placemat project. In 2019, Jim got a personal trainer at the Y. and needed some short-sleeve T-shirts. That coincided with our annual summer ritual of setting up a pot of indigo dye in our outdoor workshop. I was also experimenting with batik and how to use an Indonesian djanting to dribble melted soy wax over fabric as a dye resist.

I remember thinking at the time that I should have dipped the shirt in indigo another couple of times to deepen the color. But I was worried that the soy wax would dissolve (unlike the classic beeswax/parafin combo). But the shirt was an eye-catcher at the gym.

This shirt became my candidate for placemats. Plan: sandwich rectangles of t-shirt with batting and backing. Free-motion quilt with colorful thread. Fold the backing over to create the binding.

As with most things in life, easier said than done.

Jersey-knit cotton squirms around. Even cutting a rectangle poses a problem. Here are instructions based on my solution:

🤓 Cut a placemat-size rectangle from freezer paper.

🤓 Smooth the t-shirt flat on an ironing board and iron the shiny side of the paper to the fabric. This stabilizes it enough to cut out the needed shape. Remove the rest of the t-shirt.

🤓 Without removing the freezer paper, place the rectangle on a same-size piece of fusible interfacing (my choice is Pellon SF101 woven cotton). Fuse the interfacing enough to remove the freezer paper without distorting the knit.

🤓 Then complete the fusing process according to the manufacturer's instructions.

To complete my quilt sandwich, I cut a rectangle of cotton batting and glue-basted it to a rectangle of backing material cut a couple of inches larger than the top. For glue, I used washable Elmer's School Glue. With the top and backing pinned together, I started free-motion-quilting it all together

My free-motion skills are primitive, so I tried to make my palsied lines a feature, not a flaw, as I outlined the doodled motifs. When I finished, I stay-stitched around the perimeter.

Finally, I trimmed the backing to an inch larger than the placemat; double-folded it over to make a binding around the edges; sewed it down; then laundered and ironed the final result.

Writing this out gave me so many good memories. Continued here>>>