DIY No-Sew Placemats

Don’t sew?

Don’t worry. Summer is about easy entertaining and getting a lot of bang without spending a lot of bucks. These DIY no-sew placemats do just the trick – brightening up your dining space and creating an atmosphere at your table without breaking the bank. By selecting an outdoor fabric, these mats will also be spill and UV resistant. No sewing skills required!

Supplies:

Each no-sew placemat requires 19 ¾” by 14 ¾” (~50cm x 37.5cm) of material – the amount of material you purchase will depend on the number of placemats you want and the pattern in the cloth. Eg. If you want a flower on each placemat, you will have to select your material to give you enough of that image to create your number of placemats.
Heat n’ Bond or other double-sided adhesive fusing. These instructions use a roll that is 7/8” by 10 yards ( 22mm by 9.1m) – which will make 6 placemats.

I saw this UV/outdoor fabric and I couldn’t resist – but you could go with something (a lot) less busy and change them out depending on the meal and guests.

Tools (the short and sweet list!)

Scissors
Iron

Steps:

Cut your no-sew placemats carefully at 19 ¾” by 14 ¾”. (~50cm x 37.5cm) We won’t be hemming these, so your cuts need to be straight and accurate.

Place your fabric face-down on an ironing board and apply a strip of Heat n’ Bond along the bottom edge. Get as close to the edge as possible and iron into place – leaving the protective backing on the side facing the iron.

Once ironed, remove the protective backing so the top side of the fusing is exposed.

Bring the corner of your fabric up at a 90 degree angle to the bottom edge – wrong sides together. Fold the bottom edge up and align the triangle so that when you fold the bottom edge upwards the horizontal edge of the triangle will line up with the bottom of your fabric. This might be easier to see than to explain:

Release the bottom edge and iron the corner into place. Repeat for the corner on the other edge.

Bring up the bottom edge, realign with the horizontal edge of the triangle and then iron down.

Repeat these steps for the top edge.

Iron a strip of fusing to the sides of the placemat – as close to the edge as possible. Remove the protective backing .

Bring in your corners so they are a tight fit with the top and bottom corners you’ve already done.

Iron into place and repeat on the other side.

Once you have your pieces cut, each placemat should take you less than 10 minutes to complete.

Your finished placemats should be 18” by 13” (45.7cm by 33cm) – more than enough room for a charger, plate, cutlery and even a glass.

Mine have been through the wash more than a few times now and save for a few stray threads, they have remained perfect. The heat and bond hasn’t released, stains have washed out easily and they’ve barely shrunk at all.

Easy – fun actually – and what a power punch for your patio decor!

Save this tutorial; you don’t have to limit this to summer barbecues – you can change up the fabric and have a set of DIY no-sew placemats for every holiday and occasion!

I can’t give you costs for these because it really is going to depend on the fabric you choose and the number of placemats you want to make. The heat and bond is only about $4 per package and I used about a package and a third to make all 8 of my DIY no-sew placemats.