Repurposing men’s shirt fabrics | Improv strip-pieced placemat

Yesterday, I showed you how to make a quilted placemat with a hand-stitched shirt pocket. Tools like a Template plastic, 505 Temporary Fabric Adhesive, OLFA 45 mm Ergonomic Rotary Cutter, Clover Chaco liner chalk marker, OLISO PRO  TG1600 Pro Plus Smart Iron, and  Mary Ellen’s Best Press make the process enjoyable and quick.

Placemat made from repurposed shirt fabric with pocket

materials

fabric

• 2 contrasting shirt fabrics, one piece with an original pocket intact
• 12″ x 18″ lightweight batting

other

• 11″ x 17″ Template plastic
• 505 Temporary Fabric Adhesive
• OLFA 45 mm Ergonomic Rotary Cutter
• Clover Chaco liner chalk marker
• OLISO PRO TG1600 Pro Plus Smart Iron
• Mary Ellen’s Best Press

Let’s get started!

Placemat 3

Use your OLFA 45 mm Ergonomic Rotary Cutter to cut 2 strips 6½” x 25″ from shirt fabric. Sew strips together if necessary to get the required length.

From contrasting shirt fabric cut 1 strip 3″ x 25″ and 3″ strips for binding.

Sew the 3” strips together to make 1 long strip that will go all around the entire placemat for the binding.

Batting: 12″ x 18″

Backing: 12″ x 18″

Putting it all together

Sew the 6½” strips and the 3″ contrasting strip together to make a strip set.

Sew the strips together.

Cut the strip set into 3½” segments that are slightly angled on each side. The strips should be about 3½” at the widest point.

Cut strips into angled segments.

Sew the segments together, alternating wide and narrow ends, to make 1 panel that is about 12″ x 18″. Using the OLISO PRO ^TG1600 Pro Plus Smart Iron, press the seams in one direction.

Pieced placemat

Using an 11″ x 17″ plastic template, draw around the outside edges with a Clover Chaco liner chalk marker. These lines will be the cutting lines after the quilting is finished.

Trace around the template to mark cutting lines.

Layer the placemat top, lightweight batting and backing.

Use ODIF 505 spray adhesive on the batting to hold the 3 layers together.

Quilt as desired.

Using the chalk lines as a guide, trim the placemat so it measures 11″ x 17″.

Follow the instructions from my earlier blog post about my wonky quilt block and a shirt pocket to sew on the binding.

Sew on the binding.

And here’s the finished placemat!

Finished placemat

Please join me again tomorrow when I show you some ideas for using up the leftover strips of shirt fabric to make a mug rug or tray mat where 505 Temporary Fabric Adhesive and OLFA 45 mm Ergonomic Rotary Cutter will come in handy!

This is part 4 of 5 in this series

Go back to part 3: Repurposing men’s shirt fabrics | Adding a hand-stitched shirt pocket

Go to part 5: Repurposing men’s shirt fabrics | Quilt-as-you-go scrappy mug rug

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