>Placemats

>Ok, I’m going to be doing a little thing called: Spring De-Stashing. If you want to join in, go ahead. I’m working on going through my stash, so I can’t start a project unless I have MOST (if not ALL) of the supplies already. Which shouldn’t be hard, but I see so many projects and think of new things to try and it makes it hard to get through the stash. So, I won’t be buying anything (which isn’t very hard) but I’ll be cleaning out my stash and going through the things I have been saving and actually do the projects.
My first Spring De-Stash project (oh, and I know it’s not spring yet, but I like to be prepared, if I was a boy I would have been an AWESOME Scout!!):

 It’s a really cut place mat with the proper placing  of the dinner items already appliqued on, so it will be easy to keep everything in it’s place. Recently, we started letting Little Man use a cup at the table. Which he’s doing REALLY well with (better then his sister, who doesn’t pay attention and knocks hers over). So, in an attempt to get my kids to keeps their cups in the proper place I made these mats for them. (I was totally inspired by this post on Jada Roo Can Do)

Supplies:
Fabric- 2 or more kinds- can match but don’t have to
Batting- I used what I had in my stash
Heat-N-Bond or whatever fabric bonding agent you prefer

 I started by letting my daughter pick out the fabrics she wanted to use, one for the main mat and she picked 3 for the items on the mat. I put heat-n-bond on the back on the fabric for the items, and then let her trace our items onto the heat-n-bond

 Then she cut them out and I ironed them onto the mat (her mat is 12×16, my son’s mat is 12×14, so it depends on how bug your table settings are, and how many you will put on their mat, you’ll need two pieces of fabric for the mat) (plus, her’s are a little hard to see since they are mostly the same color pink)

 Next I did NOT sew on the items, instead I put the two mat pieces, right sides together, and a piece of batting that was the same size.

 I then sewed around them, leaving an opening to pull the fabric out of, I clipped the corners, pulled the fabric so the outside was on the outside, and top stitched,

 Then I sewed on the item pieces, sewing through both layers of fabric and the batting, so when it washes it will all stay in it’s proper place, I did a little more ironing, and

 I had a fabulous mat for my daughter to use at dinner tonight.

And of course, Little Man needed on too, his won’t have a spot for a knife (I mean, really, I don’t have a death wish) Since his fabrics are so different it’s a lot easier to see the items, (at least in the picture, my daughter’s looks really good in person, but it’s very difficult to get a good picture).
So, this is my first project, I have many more to come. I’ll be putting up a tab on the top for all of my Spring De-Stash projects, some will use small scraps (come on, I know I’m not the only one who hates throwing away fabric) and some will use larger pieces (my mom just sent me a few yards of fabric for my kids, I have a really cute “matching” project in mind, hopefully I get it done before I go back to NY for spring break so we can bring them out)

P.S.: I know that the spoon is in the wrong place, but really, it’s the most convenient place for these mats, we don’t usually have something where we’d use both a spoon and a fork.

Linking Up:
The Girl Creative 
Keeping It Simple
All Things Related
Tea Rose Home 
Someday Crafts