How to Make Your Own Embroidered Place Mats - Tutorial!

I have a girlfriend who's birthday is just 12 days after mine...

We love to exchange fun kitchey types of gifts for one another. This year she gave me some beautiful salad tongs with pretty little metal pineapple's on top. So this got me thinking on some of the fun summer get together’s we've had in the past, and the got me contemplating about what kind of gift I would give to her for her birthday.

Beautiful embroidered place mats came to mind for those backyard barbecues. They will lend a little bit of elegance, in a rustic sort-of-way to any table. Knowing that I wanted to use Redwork Designs as the basis for these projects (in this case, Floral Silhouette's 1, 2 & 3 were used), I then searched around for a few shops and found the perfect place mats I wanted to use for my designs. Just plain cream colored place mats with a natural looking fiber were the choice for me.

Here is What You Will Need...

• Floral Silhouette 1
• Floral Silhouette 2
• Floral Silhouette 3
• 6 store bought place mats... or handmade if you have the aspirations
• Medium weight tear-away stabilizer (Pellon 806 Stitch-n-Tear)
• Pellon 541 Wash-N-Gone
• Clear Ruler
• Erasable Gel Ink pen
• Blue Painters Tape
• Re-positionable spray adhesive
• A 5" by 7" hoop

Here's How They Are Made... (Video Available at End of Article)

Step 1

I started by printing out my design at 100%. I then cut around the image so I had a neat square around the design. Once that was done, I folded the paper in half and then half again.

Step 2

I knew that I wanted to place them in the bottom right hand corner of the place mat. So I began by measuring and marking 1" (25.4mm) from the right and bottom side of the place mat.

Step 3

I then took my folded paper and placed to the edges of my red-line measurements on my place mat. I marked my center.

Step 4

I then sprayed my tear-away with the spray adhesive and layered my place mat onto the tear-away. I then lined up my center marks with the center marks of the embroidery hoop.

Step 5

Once hooped, I layered and taped into place the Wash-N-Gone. (Wash-N-Gone is excellent to use on any surface that has a thick pile. It keeps the stitched from sinking into the material.)

Once all place mats were embroidered, I then trimmed away the excess Wash-N-Gone away from the design, and ran under running water to get rid of the excess. It really does wash right out, so easily. I then ironed all place-mats using a press cloth to get red of the red measuring marks and any excess wrinkles.

Now With Video!