Jinny has a free pattern at her website for making the placemat or table runner.
Since I am teaching this as a class on Tues. April 28 --I made some with the Milan border -red (this also would be a fresh border for my Mi Amore pattern!). So excited with the results. There are two centerlines, so thought with 1 yard I could get two placemats. Each is beautiful and I came out with some stunning results. But the pattern's suggested approximate1/2 yard didn't yield me a placemat, 1 yard didn't yield me 2.
So, here are a few tips when selecting your fabric to know how much you need.
There are 6 pieces to each placemat. You basically need 6 center points. The Milan fabric only has 4 strip sets on the width of fabric, so one repeat isn't going to be enough. you need two--3 repeats plus appropriate clearances should yield you 2 placemats!
Clearance requirements: Make sure you have at least 6 1/2" clearance from the edge of the fabric to your chosen center line, and you need two repeated center lines with that same clearance on the other side to be safe. In the case of Milan, the center line repeat is 24", so at least 1 yard + 1" if the 'cut edge off the bolt' was placed appropriately would be necessary for me to get 1 placemat and be safe. With 1 yard I almost got two placemats using different centerlines (there were two symmetrical center lines in the design), but needed a few more inches in order to get the required pieces for either.
This is what I was able to get with the randomly cut yard.
After cutting another 43" from the bolt so that I had the right additional elements. I yielded these:
An important test is to use chalk (taylor's or chaco wheel) to mark off your templates on the uncut yardage to insure you've got enough or can maximize what you have based on the center lines available.
Thanks for reading!
