How to Make a Hexagon Placemat

Mothers Day is approaching here in the U.S. so today I wanted to share a project that caught my eye from Joann Fabrics.  If you are giving your Mom some flowers, why not make her a colorful placemat to put them on! I’m pretty sure no matter how old we get, Mothers will value the time spent on a gift over the money! In learning how to make a hexagon placemat, you can also take advantage of using up some of your scrap fabrics.  Win-Win.

Although Joann’s does provide some helpful tips, I wanted to throw in my own recommendation if you are not an expert at stitching in the ditch.  This is a great project to test out your free motion quilting techniques or even some basic quilting stitches with designs to highlight your project. Or better yet, try using an erasable fabric marker and drawing a design to quilt each “petal” of the placemat.

SUPPLIES & TOOLS:

• 

  Image from Joann.com

  Fabric – (7) 8″x 8″ squares & (1) 20″x 20″ piece for backing

• Batting – (7) 8″x 8″ squares
• Hexagon pattern
• Pins
• Scissors

DIRECTIONS:

1. Cut out all 7 hexagon pieces in your selected fabrics using the attached pattern.
2. Cut out all 7 hexagon pieces in your batting using the attached pattern.
3. Line up your hexagon fabric with the batting pieces so you have all 7 pieces matched up.
4. Sew right sides together with a 1/4″ seam allowance for all 7 pieces of the flower. Sew each petal to the centerpiece first, then the adjacent petal, until you have finished all. Remember to start and stop at the dots marked on the pattern piece. Press.
5. With the right sides together, pin the top flower piece to the backing piece. Cut off excess.
6. Stitch 1/4″ seam allowance around the perimeter of the flower, leave one edge open.
7. Flip right side out, press, then topstitch along the outer edge.
8. Stitch in the ditch along the remainder of the placemat top.

JOANN HACKS:

• It is helpful to transfer the attached hexagon pattern onto thick cardstock for cutting.
• To make the cutting go a bit faster you can cut out each hexagon and matching batting piece at the same time using the pattern.
• To make sure your hexagon pieces have clean edges that line up correctly, it is important to remember to go inside the edge 1/4″ before you stitch each side. On the attached pattern piece you will see dots where you should be starting and stopping your stitches along each edge.
• Remember to fold and press your open edge in before you topstitch the placemat.

Make your own flowers!

Want to make your own fabric flowers to go along with this hexagon placemat? Here is a tutorial that can teach you how to make several different kinds. The rose would be a beautiful flower to brighten up anyone’s day.

Fabric Flower Demonstration Video