A peek inside the creative life of Lorri-Marie Jenkins

First off, a little backstory. Who are you? What do you make?
my name is lorri-marie.
my passion is creating art with the cast offs from other people. i love found object work...metal, wood, doll parts, fabric. there is something deep inside me that hates to see things go unused by our society. it is hard for me to buy new art/craft materials, when i can find such a juicy treasure chest in the items that people are throwing away!

What projects are you in the middle of right now that you should probably be working on instead of doing this?
right now i am getting ready for several art/craft shows in berkeley. i have created many, many, mini-monster key fobs that i will sell there (and some are listed on my etsyshop). these fun little monsters are very useful in locating your keys...and entertaining others! they were published in 'stuffed magazine' not too long ago. i am still left with lots of fun colored pieces of fabric, but the inventory of the mini-monsters is plenty...so i have started to make some fun flower pins. ordinary? that just will not do...so i am singeing the edges of the fabric first...love it! i have a passion for well loved blue jeans too.....i take old, well loved jeans and patch them up...i will be published in the february edition of'greencraft magazine' with some of these delicious jeans. i also have some small artworks that have been created on abandoned flash cards. these will be for sale in berkeley as well....that is what i should be working on now...tee hee.

Where do you find inspiration?
i have a play group that gets together once a week, and another play group that gets together once a month. female artists are so darned juicy and inspirational...i just show up and i am both inspired and nurtured by their creative ideas!

Do you have a favorite book/blog/movie/etc you’d like to recommend?
i am not one to spend a lot of time with books, movies or blog searching...my attention span is too short....so i rely on the face to face inspiration!


Where can readers see more of your work?
i have an etsy shop http://www.etsy.com/shop/LorriMarie
and a blogspot http://wingingit-wingingit.blogspot.com/
i do my best to keep up with these connections....but as a woman with family, a full time job...and lots of fun to be had everyday....i am not as diligent as some others!

Thanks so much for giving us a peek into your creative life, Lorri-Marie!

Flickr Finds - Snowflakes

And yes, there is a tutorial tucked in there somewhere...


1. Snowflake Cupcakes, 2. Snowflakes, 3. Snowflake Curtain, 4. Squirrel

If you'd like to see one of your Flickr finest in an upcoming feature, post it to our group: http://www.flickr.com/groups/absolutelysmall/

3 Steps to Prepare Your Etsy Shop for 2011

2011 is almost upon us. Some of you have been planning how to kick 2011's butt for months now. However, it's not too late for the rest of us to get our acts together for the coming year!
(And as usual "Etsy" is working as shorthand here for Artfire, DaWanda, etc etc etc.)

1. Get your goals together!
Last year, I put up a 3 part blog series called "How to Make 2010 the Best Year Ever". It included
project planning worksheets to download, information about time management, and of course 2010's Etsy Goal Worksheet. With the exception of the update to the Etsy Goal Spreadsheet, it's all still good. Set those goals! Write them down! Plan them out!

2. Clean house.
Take a good, hard look at your Etsy shop. Are there some items there that could use a new photo? Can you improve your titles and/or tags? How's the grammar and spelling in those listings? Take some time to spruce things up. For those of us with eleventy billion listings, this can be really overwhelming. Try setting a timer for one hour increments. Really focus on the work at hand during that time. You might just be surprised how much you can get done in a focused burst of energy. Or, try the Craftopolis Edit Express to edit multiple listings at once.

3. Make a marketing plan.
Now that your shop is polished and gorgeous, how are you going to attract people to it? Setting a written plan ahead of time can really streamline your work day. It can also help you stay on track, and waste less time with social networking. Here's a really cool article on Handmade Spark about how to visually plan out your marketing.

What are your favorite ways to prepare for the coming year? Share them in the comments!

The Etsy Goal Spreadsheet for 2011

The last two years on my other blog, I've given away Etsy Goal Spreadsheets for that year. Keeping an Etsy Goal Spreadsheet remains one of the best things I've ever done for my little business. I've heard great things from others who have started using it, too. Naturally, we've got to keep that going!

I've been using it for two years now. It's given me clarity on how much I've been selling week by week. I can see on what days people have been buying stuff. I have gratitude that I have been selling regularly. It's also made me conscious of how things are going for the shop.
All this from just a simple little spreadsheet.

But just tracking isn't enough. You have to know where you're going. So I set an audacious goal. Audacious, but hopefully achievable. What this does for me is enable me to really know how well I am doing from week to week, how close I am (or not) to reaching my goals. And then I can adjust accordingly.

So without any further ado:
Download the Etsy Goal Spreadsheet for 2011

Here's how you use it.
First, add your sales goal (where you'd like to be, sales wise at the end of the year) in the cell below the GOAL cell. (I've put 500 in randomly, but change it to whatever your goal is.)
The first column has weekly dates in it. Along the top are the days of the week. Enter how many sales you've had on any given day. They'll automatically subtract from the Left to Go cell. That's it!


Notes:
* Feel free to share & change this willy nilly, but please let people know you found it at http://absolutelysmall.com/blog
* This spreadsheet is an .xls file. In other words, it's made to be opened with Excel, but can (hopefully) also be opened by a number of other programs. (Numbers, Open Office, etc.)
* It may be titled Etsy, but of course this spreadsheet would work equally well for Artfire, your own site, or whatever else it is you need to track.

*1/1/11 - The dates have been corrected. However, dates pulling up as #### has been reported. This is not a spreadhseet error. Simply widen the column to make those pound signs go away.
(Thank you Chrystal S & Madeline from the comments for pointing this out!)

How to Make a Blythe Hooded Capelet

Once you've crossed into the territory of making snuggies for your Blythes, a hooded capelet isn't that much of a stretch. And it's not that much more difficult, either.



You will need:

• The Pattern

• Fabric for the top

• Fabric for the lining

• 18" (45.7 cm) thin ribbon (I like 3mm, personally)

• Needle & Thread, or a sewing machine

• Scissors

Download The Pattern Here!
Piece 1
Piece 2

Cut out the pattern pieces, and then cut out:
2 hood pieces from the top fabric (You may want to fold the fabric in half, right sides touching, to cut two mirror images of the fabric at once.)
2 hood pieces from the lining fabric (Ditto the folding and the cutting.)
1 cape piece from the top fabric
1 cape piece from the lining fabric
2 - 9" (22.8 cm) pieces of ribbon

Sandwich the hood and cape pieces together, right sides touching. Make sure you wind up with the hood pieces being mirror images of each other, like so:


Assemble the cape:
Starting in the middle of the top, sew the cape pieces together. Leave about a 1/4" seam. Carefully place the ribbons at the top edges, making sure to tuck them inside. Leave a 1" gap so you can turn the whole thing inside out. Turn it inside out, and stitch up the gap at the top. Be sure to backstitch!


Assemble the hood:
Starting at the middle of the bottom seam, sew the hood pieces together. Leave about a 1/4" seam. Sew all the way around, leaving a 1" gap for turning inside out.

Turn the hood pieces inside out. Sew up the gap on the bottom. Then sandwich the two pieces together, and sew from the top front of the hood, all the way down to the back. Be sure to backstitch! This will leave the front and bottom of the hood open.

Place the hood and cape together, right sides touching, and sew. Again, be sure to backstitch.


Trim the loose threads, and that's it! You're done!


Feel free to make as many of these as you wish. If you wind up selling them, please link back to my blog in your listing. These tutorials take forever! ^_^

(Behold the fun you can have with other fabrics. This capelet is one of my favorites.)

Visual Caffeine

Eclectism is a virtue. I don't know if it's a word, but it's definitely a virtue.

- Will Smith

Got a photo or a quote for a Visual Caffeine post? Email me, or use the contact tab above!

Library Book Review - Ignore Everybody

Ignore Everybody! And 39 other KEYS TO CREATIVITY! Why, I like ignoring people! And being more creative! Look, there's even a sketch of a guy with an axe on the cover.
Naturally, I picked this book up. I found this tiny tome sitting on the New Releases shelf of my local library during a recent-ish run. (Yeah, it was released in 2009. And it's nearly 2011. No matter.)

The book is divided into 40 tiny chapters. Each one is only a few pages long and gets right to the point. It's interesting, but very confrontational. This is not another feel-good artsy-fartsy woo-woo book. But there are plenty of those I've already read. Quite frankly, some of it annoyed me.

While I didn't agree with everything written, this book really made me think. Nearly every chapter was provocative, and very good at making you question your business/craft. Needless to say, that also makes this a very slow read, at least for me. Having to stop every few pages to stare into space and think can do that to you. Not that being made to think is in any way a bad thing.

Ignore Everybody started out as a blog post, and swelled out from there. What's really cool is that you can read the first 12 chapters on Gapingvoid's blog. I love that you can see if it resonates with you first.

If you're looking for a book that will make you question the way you're doing things and what you're creating, by all means pick this one up.

Ignore Everybody: and 39 Other Keys to Creativity

5 Must Have Etsy Apps

I like Etsy very, very much. However, there are a few little gaps that 3rd party developers have stepped up to fill, for which I am eternally grateful. Here are five of my very favorite, can't live without, as essential as coffee Etsy applications.

Statsy
Yes, you know Statsy. Everyone knows Statsy, right? With good reason! Statsy will notify you if you're on the front page. Statsy can schedule out your renewals for you. Statsy can tell you how far back in the search results you are. I love you, Statsy.

Favoritizer
I do most of my shopping from my favorites. This is only problematic in that Etsy offers no way to organize one's favorites. Favoritizer to the rescue! You can sort by creating lists that make sense to you, and then populate them simply dragging and dropping. Better yet, these lists are private, so your gift ideas can remain safely secret. (Of course, you can make them public if you wish.)

Etsy on Sale:
Yeah, Etsy just started offering coupon codes, and that's great. However, if you want to offer something other than a percentage off of everything, Etsy on Sale to the rescue! You can customize your sale in several different ways. Actually, it wasn't so very long ago that I was singing their praises right here on this very blog that you are reading now.

Craftopolis:
Another one that everyone knows, and for good reason! Their Shop Lovers page just gets better and better. It lets you see at a glance how many unique visitors, how much you've made, how many things are expiring, how many new shop hearts *deep breath*... In other words, it takes all that squinty Google Analytics data and makes it pretty. And easy. They also offer Edit Express, which allows you to make changes to a batch of listings at one time. How many times over the years this would have come in handy! The Tag Report is promising, too...but it's either slightly broken, or no one finds me through searches on Etsy, ever. (Which is possible, I suppose...)

Etsy Hacks:
It wasn't so very long ago that Etsy didn't offer a way to copy a listing. And it was in those dark days that I found Etsy Hacks. Etsy's done a bang up job with the whole copy/edit options, but Etsy Hacks still offers a wide range of applications that make Etsy work better. In the forums a lot? Downloading Forum Wrangler will make your life so much easier. Convo Linker rocks my socks. And there are tons more.
*Note: you must use Firefox to take advantage of these aps. And then you need to run Greasemonkey. But seriously, this is so easy. You can do it!

What are some of your favorite Etsy apps?

The Road to 500 Giveaway...Announcing the Winner!

Thanks very much to everyone who left a comment on the giveaway! All 242 of you. So many of you said such sweet things, too. (I may have to make giveaways a regular part of this site!)
Enough with the preamble! Who won?
Well, according to Random.org, it is:

Commenter #3! Julia! Congratulations! I'll be emailing you shortly.

Again, thank you everyone who entered the contest. I hope you'll stick around the blog awhile. (Monday's post? All about must have Etsy resources. There *may* also be a free Blythe pattern later in the week...)

I didn't quite make it to 500 Etsy sales this week, which is actually good news for you. Currently, I'm at 498. (Soooo close!) I am still giving away a little extra surprise gift with every purchase, until we hit sale #501. So hop on over to AbsolutelySmall.etsy.com if you still have a Chickenpants jones.

A peek inside the creative life of Mary Casher

***Special note! It's not too late to enter the Road to 500 Giveaway!***

Today we get to talk to Mary Casher, the creator of LEFTZ plush creatures, and owner of one amazingly organized studio.



First off, a little back story. Who are you? What do you make?
My name is Mary and I punch stuffed animals... As a child I was a collector of all things fuzzy.
It wasn't until I was laid off from my job as a baker that I discovered sewing. After the initial shock of losing my job, I realized that it had given me a great opportunity to freely express my creativity. My mother helped the process by cleaning out her craft room and giving me bags of fabric. Previously, I had tried sewing quilts and a few pattern dresses. I failed horribly, so the thought of sewing was far from my mind. But I gave it another shot, this time without patterns. As I let the designs freely flow I become intrigued with how creative I could be. During the time I was testing the waters of design, I started shopping at the local thrift stores for fabric. To give a little more spunk to my designs I decided to "punch out" all of their left eyes and stuff them with recycled plastic shopping bags. Thus, LEFTZ was born.


What projects are you in the middle of right now that you should probably be working on instead of doing this?
Ha! Well I just finished up a large order for the Young Blood Gallery & Boutique. I'm also working on plush for the upcoming gallery show at HotPop in Milwaukee, while trying to stock up new designs for Christmas. Then before I can relax I plan on submitting to Stuffed Magazine & Green Craft. So, I should be doing a lot of things at the moment, but this is a welcomed break!


What do you primarily create?
Animals are my primary plush. I did create a limited edition collection called Tribals, which consisted of  plush tree people with various accessories such as spears, fish, or fire pits. There are such a variety of animals to choose from, that I am never lacking inspiration. My new collection is called Mini Monsters, they are mainly created with faux fur that I have cut from thrift store stuffed animals. I must admit, I do feel a little bad cutting them up but I love bringing new life to something old.


Where do you find inspiration?
Everything and anything can be inspiration but nature is my biggest inspiration. The colors are always changing and the slightest thing can spark my imagination. Other times I will be standing in front of a rack of clothes at the thrift store and a pair of pants are instantly transformed into a plush cat.

Do you have a favorite book/blog/movie/etc you'd like to recommend?
My favorite blog is www.forgottenbookmarks.com Michael owns a used bookstore. Through his purchases of books he's discovered a lot of fun and interesting things that have been left inside. The photos, notes, and documents left behind are priceless glances into the history of the book's owner.

Where can readers see more of your work?
You can find more of my work in

• my Etsy shop www.arttales.etsy.com

• my blog arttales-leftz.blogspot.com

• or in the July 2010 issue of Stuffed Magazine.

Thanks for giving us a peek into your crafty life, Mary!

Don't forget to look for a selection of Mary's plush in the Winter 2011 issue of STUFFED Magazine!

10 Things to do With Fabric Scraps

***Special note! It's not too late to enter the Road to 500 Giveaway!***


The cuter a fabric is, the harder a time I have parting with the tiny bits of it. I have a serious Japanese cotton habit, and somehow using the tiny leftover scraps makes me feel...industrious! Smart! Less wasteful! So, in the interest of mitigating my hoarding habit (and not winding up on one of those shows in the future), here's a list of things to do with all that leftover fabric.

How tiny are your pieces?
1" pieces or less -

• These can make excellent stuffing for softies, or any place you'd use polyfill. Naturally, the stuffing cotton scraps make is much denser and heavier than the stuffing that leftover fluffy fabrics like poly fleece make. Just so you know.

2" pieces

• Button covers. Craft Pudding put together an excellent tutorial on how to do this without a kit!

Photo by Craft Pudding

• I actually wrote a tutorial for Craft Leftovers Monthly recently on how to make a mini-garland with scraps just this size.

• This amazing ticker tape quilt calls for pieces that are just 1" x 2"! Full tutorial on Sew, Mama, Sew!

3" pieces

• Flower pins....perhaps something like this?

Photo by Wise Craft

4"

• Okay, this would technically call for a LOT of 4" pieces, but I've had this sweater in mind ever since seeing it on Mighty Girl eons ago. Weird side note: I saw the sweater ON Mighty Girl herself a few years back at Maker Faire. It is incredible in person! And also, she is very tall. And adorable. And I swear I am not some sort of crazy blogger stalker.

5"

• We're getting into easily usable fabric territory here. Hello, applique! A quick Flickr search reveals more awesome applique and tutorials than one could make in a lifetime.




Photo by me. Here's another view.

6"

• Twelve 22 put together this super tutorial on how to make a small zippered pouch. Even better, it's also a tutorial on how to install zippers...EASILY!

• There's an unending variety of plushies you could make with 6" fabric scraps. Here's one little cutie by Lori-La_Tortuga.

7" +

• If you happen to have lots of loooong-ish skinny pieces (1.5" seems to be the average), why not make a rag rug? (OR just sew those tiny bits together to make long strips.) This would bust the living daylights out of even the most generous rag stash.

Tutorial on Moda Bake Shop!
(Photo by Moda Bake Shop too, natch!)

Crafty Kitchen - The End of Nothing To Eat

***Special note! It's not too late to enter the Road to 500 Giveaway!***

We have all been there. Some of us pretty much live there. "There" being the dreaded 5 pm "what are we going to eat for dinner" pang. Try as I might to plan meals, things happen. Ingredients that should have been bought fall through the cracks. Sometimes, it's as simple as nothing sounding good. But something struck me the other day (no, not a box of cereal as it fell out of the cupboard...well, at least not this time). A formula. For LIVING. Er, EATING!

It's an extremely basic formula:
Grain + protein + vegetable + flavors = dinner



Sounds ridiculously basic, right? It's all about keeping a small selection of things in the pantry, and picking up a few fresh things when you're out. Using this formula, you can go to the market and choose whatever is in season/ looks best.
First, a caveat: this is ridiculously simple because it's something highly individualized. What I'm sharing here is really just a loose pattern. To make it work for you, first you're going to need to compile a few quick lists. These lists are the framework that make food happen.

Here are my lists, to give you an idea. They're obviously skewed towards my own tastes, but that's the beauty of the system: it SHOULD be skewed towards your own tastes. Why bother eating some one else's idea of what delicious is?

Grains - keep in stock in pantry:

• Rice

• Pasta

• Quinoa

• Bulgur Wheat

Flavors (pantry):

• Sauces, pre-made

• spices

• garlic

• onion

• broth

• olive oil

• various vinegars (balsamic, red wine, white wine, rice...)

Vegetables (fresh is better, but keep some in freezer for quick fix/"emergency" meals):

• Whatever is in season and looks good!

• A can of tomatoes (You can get a crazy amount of mileage out of this.)

Protein (again- mostly buy fresh, but keep a few on hand in freezer for emergency meals):

• Tofu

• Tempeh

• Lentils

• More beans than one can shake a stick at

THE COMBINING:
And here's where all that hoarding comes together.
There's a tremendous amount of directions you can go with all these goodies, but if you're stumped:
Start with frying an onion and/or garlic. Add to this the vegetables and spices. Add to that the protein.

• With tons of broth/water, it's soup.

• Served over pasta, it's...pasta.

• Served over grains, it's a stir fry.

• Served in tortillas, it's burritos/tacos.

You get the idea. The secret to variety is in the spices. You might want to start keeping track of combinations you really like. Or maybe I should write some up for the blog. (I happen to have a recipe for an easy lemon dressing that knocks the socks off of more dishes than you'd think.)

What do you think? Have any spice/sauce combinations you'd like to share? Comment!

The Road to 500 Giveaway!

I am approaching a very exciting milestone in my Etsy shop, and of course I need to blab about it.
500 sales, baby. (And it's only taken me...um...almost four years!)
In the grand tradition of internet accomplishments, I'm celebrating this one with a giveaway. I'll be giving away a Chickenpants gift pack: One Chickenpants, one carrier pouch, and one hat & scarf set. Even better? You get to choose which ones you want. Yes, there will be a tiny bit of small print. Follow the asterisk!*

How can you win this bundle of awesome? All you need to do is leave a comment on this post. I'll pick a winner by random number generator on December 17th (that's this Friday!) International commenters are welcome! I'll ship anywhere.

BUT WAIT, THERE IS MORE:
You eagle eyed readers may have noticed that I said "approaching" 500 sales. In other words, I'm not quite there yet. (As of this writing, the shop is at 493 sales.) Every sale between right now and sale #501 get a special extra somethin' somethin' tucked in. Maybe a Chickenpants baby. Maybe a sticker book. Maybe a postcard set. I don't know. It's a SURPRISE. Something good, for sure!

*Here's the wee print: If you win, you get to pick your favorite Chickenpants, carrier pouch, and hat & scarf set from any that are currently in the shop. No special orders, silly. I am waaaay too pregnant for that kind of nonsense right now. The Chickenpants must be one of the regular (i.e. $20) ones. And, um, that's it. Small print over. Now go leave a comment.

Flickr Finds – Words To Live By

1. An artist is someone who finishes things., 2. My Favourite Song, 3. DO IT BETTER OR SHUT UP, 4. What I Need Today

If you'd like to see one of your Flickr finest in an upcoming feature, post it to our group: http://www.flickr.com/groups/absolutelysmall/

A peek inside the creative life of Shana Astrachan

This week, I'm very proud to be able to post an interview with the lovely and talented Shana Astrachan. Shana and I work a lot of the same craft shows, so I'm not quite sure where we first met. In any case, she is awesome, and here is a peek into her creative life!

First off, a little backstory. Who are you? What do you make?
My name is Shana Astrachan. I live in San Francisco, California. I make jewelry and objects, my designs evolve from my love of metal and experimenting with unexpected materials and unconventional approaches to working with them. I am always up for the challenge of transforming a new material in a unique and beautiful way.

What projects are you in the middle of right now that you should probably be working on instead of doing this?
I am crocheting a big basket from twine, and since I am in the midst of opening a retail space for my jewelry and design objects this isn't what I should be working on, but it is sitting under the coffee table unfinished for now. Plus I just knit my first pair of slippers two weeks ago. I have so much jewelry to make right now, I better get to work!

Where do you primarily create?
My studio and kitchen and living room and bedroom...

Where do you find inspiration?
Everywhere it seems. From other makers, from vintage crafts, from the materials themselves.

Do you have a favorite book/blog/movie/etc you'd like to recommend?
Two favorite books with the same title, 'I Like You' (the 1965 Sandol Stoddard book and the Amy Sedaris 2006 book)

Where can readers see more of your work?
www.shanaastrachan.com
ShanaAstrachan.etsy.com
shanaastrachan.blogspot.com
crafthaus.ning.com/profile/ShanaAstrachan

Thanks for sharing a peek into your creative life with us, Shana!

Crafty Kitchen - Indian Tomato Soup

One recent cold and wintry evening, I found myself craving some manner of tomato soup (with grilled cheese sandwiches on the side, of course!). A quick search online revealed that tomato soup could be so much more than just, well, pureed tomatoes. I'm a huge fan of Indian food, and a huge stockpiler of Indian spices. Using what I had on hand, I threw this together. And what do you know, it actually worked!


What you'll need:

• 1 - 28 oz can whole tomatoes


• 2 potatoes, peeled


• 1 celery stalk


• 1/2 onion


• 2 cloves garlic


• 1/2 tsp. cumin seeds


• 2 tab. butter or ghee


• 2 tsp. black mustard seeds


• 2 tsp. garam masala, or to taste


• 1 tsp. powdered ginger


• 1 cup milk


• cilantro

In a large saucepan or dutch oven, melt the butter over med. high heat. Add the cumin seeds, and cook for a few seconds, until fragrant. Brown the onion and garlic together. Add the browned onion, garlic, celery and tomatoes to a food processor, and puree them together. Return mixture to pan. Add potatoes, garam masala, mustard seeds and ginger. Simmer, partially covered, for 35 minutes. Add water as needed. (I wound up using 1 1/2 cups.) Add the milk, and remove from heat. Garnish with cilantro.

4 - 6 servings, reheats well!

10 Fast and Easy Handmade Gift Tutorials

You need gifts. What you have is craft supplies. No problem! The internet to the rescue, again!

Make your own scented bath salts, courtesy of this Instructible by Belsey.


For the brown-bagger in your life, why not try making this adorable lunch bag?

Variations abound at The Long Thread's site, as well as a free downloadable pattern.

Speaking of portable, um, food:

An Altoids tin martini kit. Brilliant. Thank you, Spookylean!

This mini sailor's scarf is adorable! And with a sewing machine, it would come together in a snap. Plus, all you need is a fat quarter!

photo and tutorial by Because She Started Knitting

These button rings are really, really fast to make:

Tutorial and photo by CRAFT.

Perfect for the camera snob in your life: DIY Camera Strap Cover, with pockets so that pesky lens cap won't go missing (again).

Pattern & photo by Simply Modern Mom.

Make a Yoda hat for the Star Wars loving little ones in your life!

via Dollar Store Crafts

This Brown Sugar Scrub looks amazing!

Tutorial over on Craftzine.

Another one from the hallowed halls of Craftzine, this time by the very awesome Jenny Ryan:

It's a coloring kit! I know this is *technically* for kids, but I know several adults who would be more than a little thrilled to get it.

Finally, this may just be the ultimate tutorial on how to make surprise balls:

Not Martha for the win! (and the finale!)

How to Make Placemats

Maybe making all those coasters inspired me. Or maybe it was our aging collection of placemats that inspired me. In any case, it turns out to be insanely simple to make your own placemats.



What you'll need to make 4 placemats:
1 yard of fabric for the top
1 yard of fabric for the back
1 yard of medium weight interfacing
thread
needle
sewing machine (optional, but reaaaallly nice to have)
scissors and/or a rotary cutter
pins
seam turner or chopstick


For the fabric, I chose a cotton for the top, and a slightly heavier, not quite canvas cotton for the back. (It's vintage, so who knows what it really is.)

First, cut out 4- 13x16 (33 cm x 40.6 cm) pieces of the top fabric, backing, and interfacing.

You'll have about 14" (35.5 cm) leftover from your yard. Napkins, perhaps?


Next, iron the interfacing onto the back side of the top pieces according to the package directions.


Pin the newly interfaced fabric in place, right sides touching.


Starting in the middle of one side, sew around the edge of the fabric. Leave about a 1/4" (.6 cm) edge. Be sure to leave about a 2" (5 cm) gap so you can turn the placemat inside out.


Once that's done, turn the placemat inside out. Use a seam turner or a chopstick to get those pesky corners.

Pinch the fabric together at the gap, and hand sew the gap closed.


Finally, iron the placemat out nice and pretty. Really press the edges and corners to get nice firm edges.


Repeat the process to create as many placemats as you wish.


Now, invite your friends over to admire your handiwork!