Patriotic Cotton Tablespace

Patriotic Bowls

SUPPLIES & TOOLS:

• Wooden bowl
• Kraft paper
• Pencil
• Tape
• Scissors
• Fabric
• Straight pins
• Mod Podge
• Application brush
• Embroidery scissors, optional

DIRECTIONS:

1. Use the bowl to trace a pattern onto the paper. You can do this by holding it on its side against the paper and tracing its edges as you roll it across the paper. Or, it may be easier to take medium-sized sections of paper and wrap them around the curved outside of the bowl, marking the bowl lip and bottom with a pencil, and continuing the process until you have wrapped and marked the paper all the way around the bowl. Remove paper, flatten, and trim the excess paper from the above the lip line and below the bottom line. This is the bowl pattern.


2. Place bowl pattern atop fabric, pin, and cut fabric.


3. Use brush to apply Mod Podge to a medium-sized section of the outside of the bowl; line up fabric, stretch to lip and bottom and press with fingers. Continue around the entire bowl. When you reach the end, fold edge and press.


4. Trim any fabric at the lip as needed, embroidery scissors are helpful.


5. Seal with a top coat of Mod Podge.

Cotton Fabric Placemats

SUPPLIES & TOOLS:

• Cotton fabrics
• 3/8" cotton filler cord - 9 yards per placemat
• Scissors
• Sewing clips
• Sewing machine with zipper foot
• Thread

DIRECTIONS:

1. Measure and cut 9 yards of cotton filler cord.
2. Cut a strip of fabric at any length, about 2 inches wide.


3. Fold an end of the fabric strip over an end of the cord, hold in place, and fold the fabric width around the cord. Secure with a sewing clip.


4. Fold the rest of the fabric width around the cord, securing with sewing clips down the length of the fabric. When you reach the end of the fabric length, cut another fabric strip at any length, about 2 inches wide. Fold a short raw edge over, hold in place, and fold the fabric width around the cord, overlapping the raw edge of the previous strip. Secure with a sewing clip. Fold the rest of the fabric width around the cord, securing with sewing clips down the length of the fabric. When you reach the end of the fabric length, cut another fabric strip at any length, about 2 inches wide._x000B_


5. Continue the process of cutting fabric strips, folding over the short edge, overlapping the previous fabric strip, and securing with sewing clips, until the cord is covered, or likely, until you run out of sewing clips. Then, with your zipper foot on your sewing machine, sew the folded edge as close to the cord as your zipper foot will get, and trim off the extra fabric as close to the seam as you can get. If you had to stop and sew in order to reuse your sewing clips, simply pick up where you left off, cutting and folding and clipping as before until the cord is covered. At the end of the cord, fold in the short raw edge of the fabric strip, hold in place, and fold the width of the fabric and secure with a clip; as you did at the beginning edge of the cord. Sew edge with zipper foot and trim extra fabric.


6. With your regular presser foot back on the sewing machine, set your machine to a zigzag stitch.


7. Take a cord end and fold into a little U shape; keeping the raw seam edge tucked into the interior, and sew with a zig zag stitch. Wrap cord around the little U shape, keeping the raw seam edge tucked into the interior, and sew that larger U shape with a zig zag stitch. Again wrap the cord around the spiral you’ve begun and to create, with the raw seam edge tucked in, and sew the larger U shape with a zig zag stitch. At this point it should now be easy to continuously stitch in a spiral.


8. Check that the bulk of the placemat is falling to the left of your presser foot. If it is falling to the right it will eventually run into the sewing machine and you will need to flip the placemat over and stitch on the opposite side to continue.


9. Continue to sew the placemat spiral with a zig zag stitch until you reach the end, backstitch, and trim the thread.

Patriotic Napkins

SUPPLIES & TOOLS:

• Cotton fabric - Three designs, 1yd of each
• Iron
• Quilting ruler
• Rotary cutter and cutting mat
• Straight pins
• Sewing machine
• Matching thread

DIRECTIONS:

1. Iron fabric.


2. Cut fabric into six 23"x 23" squares, 2 squares of each design.


3. Measure 13" down from one corner and mark it. Then take your quilting ruler and place at a 45-degree angle from your mark and cut across the top.


4. Repeat for the other 5 squares; use your first-cut corner triangle as a template for the rest: place the triangle in the corner of another square, set your quilting ruler over top, and cut.


5. Create six different napkins by taking the two napkins of each design and pairing it with one corner triangle from the other two designs.


6. Pin right sides together and sew with a 1/4" seam. Press seam open. Repeat for all six napkins.


7. For each napkin:


8. Fold a side in 1/4" and press with iron. Fold side in 1/4" again, and press with iron again.


9. Repeat for all four sides.


10. Unfold and trim corner from square to square


11. Refold the first fold on both sides.


12. Fold the trimmed corner point down to the second creased lines.


13. Refold the second fold on both sides; pin into place.


14. Repeat for all four corners.


15. Secure folds with straight pins and sew around all four edges 1/4" from the folded edge.