Burlap Placemats

Golden Miss Summer is slipping away and rustic Autumn is ushered in with pumpkins and sheaves of drying corn dotting the countryside.

It seems the perfect time to break out the burlap and do a little crafting for the local benefit auction to support the Clinic For Special Children. They have done so much for us and Kierra. It was the tiniest way I could show my appreciation.

I know..burlap has been around for ‘forever’ but I seriously hadn’t gotten into the wonders of it until I tried this. Now I’m hooked 🙂

This is the finished project. It’s one of the most fun simple projects I have ever done. 

I made my place mats about 16×19 in. There’s the coolest little trick to getting a nice straight edge without having your eyes go batty.

Measure your desired size of burlap. make a small snip at all four corners. Then pick a strand of burlap and pull gently and firmly. The fabric will gather as you pull. As long as the opposite end of your string of burlap is free from the large piece of fabric, it should pull all the way out.

Now you will have this….A nice straight gap down the burlap to cut through.

Cut down the middle, and remove extra burlap threads to create a nice rustic fringe. If you remove the same amount on all sides you will keep your symmetrical shape.

I used fabric paint for the letters, but I’m guessing acrylic paint would work as well. I was planning to sell these, so I wanted something that would not wash or smudge off. I picked up a big bag of foam letters at a yardsale this summer and have been dying to try to make my own stamps with them. It worked great! Especially after I realized you have to create them all backwards so your wording comes out frontwards on your project 🙂

And before I forget I need to show you how my little guy was driving me happily crazy while I did this project (i’ll mark  the low quality photography up to him too since I had to hurry. LOL!!!)

Thankfully his paints were very washable 🙂 He painted his high chair, his ear, and his hair. I let him to his own creations 🙂 until he informed me that he was “DONE paint” Love him so much 🙂

I zig zagged the edges of the burlap with my sewing machine since I planned to sell them and didn’t want them to fray uncontrollably for folks. I think it would be fine to leave them raw for myself 🙂

Then I pressed them with a dry hot iron with parchment paper covering the lettering and burlap. That helped set the lettering, and smoothed out the wrinkles.

Just for fun i made coffee mug coasters to go with them.

I get all excited just thinking of all the fun things to do with this cool stuff:) 

*monogrammed burlap

*foody words

*Christmas joy lettering

*kids drawings turned into stamps or

* kids hand painting pictures or

*kids hand prints 

*personalized place settings