Sew custom coasters for a creative quick gift

With the end of the school year approaching and summer parties starting, it’s the perfect time to create some quick custom gifts. These coasters are made using one of the many beautiful PFAFF creative sensation pro built-in designs. Tie with a ribbon or ric rac, then add a card to complete this quick hostess or teacher gift.

Materials Required

4 – 9″ x 11″ pieces of fabric for front of coasters
4 – 9″ x 11″ pieces of batting
4 – 6½ʺ x 6½ʺ squares of backing fabric – I used 4 different fabrics that coordinated with thread
4 different contrasting threads

creative 120 Square Hoop

Select built-in design

I chose design Q-15 – a large floral bloom. The creative sensation pro will default to the 200×200 hoop size.
Select 120×120 hoop.The design will be too large for this size hoop – you can tell by the green outline being outside of the shaded area on the color touch screen.
Use the Resize button to decrease the size of the design to make it fit inside of the hoop. You can drag the stylus on the touch screen to shrink the design.

You’ll know if it doesn’t fit when you select Embroidery stitch out – a popup will come up to tell you! The green line around the outside of the design needs to be showing inside the hoop area – you can do some precise re-sizing using the stylus and the arrows around the wheel on the bottom right side of the touch screen.

Stitch out the Design

Thread the machine with your first color.
Change to the dynamic spring foot.

Layer one piece of top fabric on top of one piece of batting – put the layered pieces in the hoop.
Stitch out the first coaster – you may want to adjust the machine to a lower speed.
Remove from the hoop.

Change thread and stitch out second coaster.
Repeat two more times with the remaining two threads. I saved the design in the machine and did my coaster designs at two sittings; this way I could make sure the design was the same size for all four.

Sew the Coasters

Go back to sewing mode by selecting the lower right icon.
Trim each coaster to 6½ʺ square.

Layer one backing fabric square right side down on coordinating coaster front. Use pins to mark out a 2″ – 2½ʺ turning gap. My only advice here is to make sure it’s not too close to a corner so that the stitches won’t pull out when you’re turning the coaster right side out.

Change from the spring foot to the ¼ʺ quilting foot.

You can also choose to change to neutral thread at this point to save the colorful stuff for top stitching!

Sew ¼ʺ all the way around the coaster using the reverse button to back stitch at the beginning and end of the closing gap.

The great thing about using a PFAFF machine with the Integrated Dual Feed System is that you don’t have to pin when sewing! I only put in the 2 pins to mark the turning gap – the presser foot and IDT system kept my fabric aligned while sewing.

The ¼ʺ marks on the quilting foot makes it easy to keep an eye out for stopping to turn and keep an accurate ¼ʺ seam.

Repeat with the remaining three coasters.

Clip the corners of each coaster then turn the coasters right side out by pushing through the gaps.
Use a tool to push out the corners – I use a plastic envelope opener. A chopstick or even a pencil will also do the trick;)

Use your fingers to fold in the gap fabric and pin in place.

Top stitch around each coaster with coordinating thread.
I chose to stitch ⅛ʺ around and then did a second top stitch of ¼ʺ too.

With so many built-in designs, it’s possible to use the creative sensation pro to create different coasters for every teacher in the school!