Table Runners and Placemats from Old Linens

Dear community,
in this blog post you can find easy instructions for sewing table runners and placemats from old linens.

Table Runners and Placemats from Old Linens

In this year’s BERNINA advent calendar you will find many excellent suggestions and instructions for working with old materials that many of you collect, have lying around, or could simply obtain from family. I don’t just mean old jeans or coffee bags.

The enthusiasm for old linens began several years ago. Back then, I got the pillowcases with the crocheted inserts and linen towels from an older colleague (her children didn’t want them). That was the beginning of my passion for collecting that I shared with a friend who also enjoyed patchwork. We bought linens, hand towels, and bedding at flea markets. They were checkered or printed with old patterns. And then we shared them. We both wanted to cut them up and make magical things out of them.

This table runner was created many years ago from various hand towels:

The placemats I will be showing you the step-by-step directions for today are made of material from my collection. If they were for me, of course, they would be blue. But they are supposed to be given as a gift:

Placemats from old kitchen material.

You will need:

Different strips: 13.5 cm wide and 35 – 40 cm long (each depending on the desired height of your placemat), I am using old cloth material and old linen hand towels. Patchwork material, jeans, and other materials are very suitable.
Thin batting (volume fleece) as filling (H 630)
Material for the back side. Old linen is very good for this. The weight of the linen makes the placemat or the table runner lie very well on the table.
Appropriate sewing or quilting thread
A pattern for cutting out the material, which you can easily draw for yourself:

Sewing instructions:

Using this pattern, cut out 5 elements for 1 placemat or at least 12 parts for a table runner from these materials.
In doing so, make sure the thread is running through the middle of the pattern:

When using checkered materials, it is best to place the folded pattern precisely on the cardinal line, fold it out, and then cut it:

Now spread out your cut pieces and try them against the pattern. For the table runner, three strips are always sewn above and three strips below. This will result in a wavy edge.

For the placemat size, I sew an inverse strip on a triple combination right and left:

Stitch the patchwork portion and the back side together, right side to right side, (for me the piece of linen is not precisely cut).
then iron on batting below,
sew around them, leaving an opening:

Turn the placemats, holding on to the corners:

Turn the corners:

I only cut off the corners of the batting,
turn down the seam allowances, and hold them between the thumb and pointer finger (the thumb on the inside)
pull the corner to the right,
and done – the seam allowances are now lying cleanly on one another and there are no bumps in the corners:

Smooth out the seams, iron, and stitch around the edge with a narrow presser foot #10, with the guide along the outer edge and the needle position 2x to the left, thereby closing the turn opening.