When me and my hubby were in college and it was just the 2 of us I developed a liking for place mats, and because it was just the two of us I would by the ones on clearance that you could never find four of. I ended up with a few incomplete sets of three. One for me, one for my husband and on for the center of the table.
Now I really love this incomplete set. Such bright and happy colors.
Unfortunately, it is an incomplete clearance set so I only have 3 place mats. Having only 3 doesn't do me too much good these days, so I decided to take action and give them a nice half size make over to increase their numbers.
Here's my how to. It's rather simple. You need 2 placemats (I leave the 3rd on as is, full sized for center pieces/decorative purpose.) You need some scissors and some matching ribbon
Take a close look at this ribbon. I used a textured non-satin ribbon. I felt it matched the woven look of the placements well.
Take your two place mats and cut them in half, right down the middle, hamburger style. 2 place mats become 4!
Now the ribbon is important because that cut edge looks unfinished and is going to fray. So we take ribbon and pin it to the long edges of our mini place mats. Just wrap it around the edge and pin it down.
Even though only one side is going to fray, we are going to do both edges, so it looks nice.
Then stitch the ribbon down with a sewing machine! Ta da! All done. That was easy (unless you're me and are having issues figuring out your new sewing machine)
Clearly our new place mats are much smaller than the old ones, so they don't make very good place mats on their own. The just don't fit much on them.
So I use them like a charger and dress up some of my solid color place mats. I think it looks nice and I can still use my incomplete set of place mats. (Well, now I guess it's a complete set of 5, 4 mini mats and a full sized center piece mat) It also means I can keep shopping for place mats in the clearance isle, because it doesn't matter if I can only find 3.
Ohhh, so cute!! Like the charger idea! Visiting from PDP!!
ReplyDeleteNice idea :) You are smart. I am surely implementing it in near future.
ReplyDeleteWe have a link-up party going on - Tea Time Thursdays @ Kreative Korner. I would really appreciate if you'd link up some of your awesome posts there. Hope to see you at the party.
http://tanyaanurag.blogspot.com/2011/08/tea-time-thursdays-2-and-features.html
What a great creative idea! I love placemats to. They always make a table look so much prettier. Thanks so much for linking up to my Homemade Year linky party:> I can't wait for a Homemade 2012 and thanks for joining in the fun!
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