Be festive this Fourth of July with Patriotic Placemats for your party! Quick and easy quilting project using scraps of fabric – or buy a few fat quarters. This quilted patriotic placemat is a perfect project for beginner quilters to learn how to sew strips together and basic piecing. Here is a step-by-step tutorial on how to make a patriotic placemat.
How to Make a Patriotic Placemat
Learn how to make a patriotic placemat with this step-by-step tutorial.
Materials
- For each placemat:
- 1/4 yard red fabric
- 1/4 yard white fabric
- 6-1/2 inch square blue and white fabric
- 5/8-yard dark blue for back and binding
- Piece of batting 20-inches x 15-inches
- Thread
Tools
- Sewing machine
- Rotary cutter and mat
- Quilter's ruler
- Iron
- Pressing surface
Instructions
- Start by cutting your fabric. For the red fabric, you'll need three (3) strips cut to 12-1/2 inches by 1-1/2 inches and four (4) strips cut at 18-1/2 inches by 1-1/2 inches. From the white fabric cut three (3) strips at 12-1/2 inches by 1-1/2 inches and 3 strips at 18-1/2 inches by 1-1/2 inches. From the blue and white fabric cut a 6-1/2 inch square.
- Start by sewing the shorter strips together, alternating colors, using a 1/4-inch seam allowance. If you have a 1/4-inch foot for your sewing machine, it makes it much easier to sew an accurate seam. Sew one shorter red strip to a white strip.
- Add a red strip to the white strip you have just sewn.
- Keep sewing until all six (6) shorter strips are sewn together. Press seams.
- Lay out the top section with the blue and white square on the left and the red and white stripes on the right as shown.
- Now sew the blue and white print to the top section stripes.
- Press top section and lay it out with the stripes for the bottom section.
- Sew the stripes for the bottom section to the top section in order, like you did before, until the entire placemat top is sewn together.
- Layer your backing fabric, batting and placemat top. If you'd like, pin to secure while you quilt the placemat. I find with pieces this small, the fabric doesn't shift so I don't use pins or baste. I just layer them and start quilting!
- Quilt the placemat to your desire. I free motion quilted waves across each of the stripes and free motion quilted stars in the blue and white fabric. Here is the placemat all quilted and ready to for binding.
- Cut 2-1/2 inch strips of your backing fabric. You'll need two (2) strips of 45-inch wide fabric. Sew the strips together, right sides together, end to end to form one long piece of fabric. Press open the seam. Press the long strip in half length-wise to form a 1-1/4 inch wide strip of folded fabric. Sew the binding all around the edge of the right side of the placemat, mitering the corners.
- Turn the binding to the back of the placemat and stitch. I like to do this by hand for a nice finish, but some people like to top stitch this in place by machine. And, you have finished a patriotic placemat!
Looking for more sewing projects for the fourth? Learn how to make these wonky stars. They are a perfect project for scraps of red white and blue fabrics in your stash.
This is a super fun project where no corners need to match and your sewing lines don’t need to be perfect! Great for beginners who just want to play with their fabric and have some fun.
Then, use the wonky star blocks you make into a pillow cover!
The wonky star pillow cover article shows you step by step how to make a seasonal pillow cover that you can adjust to make for the size of pillow you have (or would like). Have fun changing the pillow cover for different holidays and seasons!
Browse through more 4th of July projects and inspiration on Create Whimsy. Check out all of our home dec projects on Create Whimsy.
