In decorative stitching, the magic is in the rayon threads

I’m spending this week sharing some simple placemat projects using WonderFil’s rayon thread packs. Yesterday I stitched some hexagon placemats and used threads from the fall rayon pack on a single piece of fabric.

Today, I’m going to use a variety of fabrics and show you how you can make the fabric piecing really sparkle in a placemat with decorative threads.

These placemats use a selection of coordinated hand dyed fabrics and the Pumpkin thread pack. This pack has some lovely oranges and greens and 2 metallic, Spotlite threads that I’ve used sparingly.

I began by cutting strips of my orange and green fabrics and used the stitch and flip method to sew the strips of fabric onto a length of low loft batting. I finger pressed each seam and once the stitching was complete, I pressed with a hot iron.

Once the piecing was done, I started stitching with my machine’s decorative stitches and the threads from the Pumpkin thread pack. The colors are perfect for this project. Some of the threads are a little bit lighter in color, so I used satin stitches to help them show clearly.

WonderFil’s small spools of thread have little hooks in the caps of the spools. This is an easy way to secure the thread and keep it from unraveling. Just wrap the thread a couple of times around the top of the spool and the thread will just click into place.

Once all my decorative stitching was complete, I pressed the piece and trimmed it to an even width.

I used another piece of batting for the base of the placemat and cut it an inch or two larger than I need for the project. I placed the decorative stitching strip on the left side and using the quilt as you go method, sewed a plain piece of fabric to both sides of the strip.

Once all my pieces are stitched to the batting, I trim everything down to size.

At this point I could layer the backing fabric right side facing down and the placemat piece right side up and add a traditional binding. I’m making these as quick projects, so I just layer them right sides facing, stitch around and turn.

I matched the backing fabric right sides facing with the pieced placemat and stitched around all sides. I left a small opening along one edge to turn the piece.

I also trimmed the stitched corners so that I would get neater corners once the piece was turned right side out.

I turned the placemats right side out and used a point turner to push out the corners. I pressed with my iron and then used some of my decorative stitches to stitch along the outside edge of the placemat and on either side of the pieced panel.

I like to stitch close to the edge of the placemat and then not have to hand stitch the opening closed.

This is just one way to sew the strip piece into the placemat. Why not try a horizontal line instead of a vertical line. Your imagination and the fabrics you have are your only limit.

Tomorrow, I’ll show you another way to use these great WonderFil rayon thread packs and stitch another placemat with just one fabric.