How to make a Pumpkin Table Runner or Placemat for Halloween

 

Getting ready for Halloween this year I prepared these pumpkin table runners / placemats.

Here's how they're made:

First you need to prepare a simple template. The tabe runners should be symmetric, therefore I cut half a pumpkin from paper and placed it onto the folded fabric. I traced the outline of the pumpking and cut through both layers. This needs to be done with the fabric, backing and batting.

Then you place the batting on the table, the backing on top of it right side up and the top fabric last right side facing down.

Clip or pin together and sew all the way around the pumpkin starting at the top and leaving a big enough space for the stem.

 

Clean the edges leaving a 1/4-inch seam allowance. Then turn the runner right side out through the opening for the stem. Now the fabric and backing should be on the outside with the backing hidden between the two layers.

 The stam is made from green felt. Cut a rectangle that's fits the table runner and insert it into the opening. Then fold the seam allowance on both sides (front and backing) towards the inside and pin in place. Attach with a straight stitch.

 The pumpkin structure is created with quilting.

 

If you want a simple pumpkin you're done. 

Otherwise you can personalize your Halloween table runner or placemat with embroidery.

This is what the backing lookes like (the green one is the table runner with the embroidery).

Here are the two runners together on the table:

Have you made a project following this tutorial? Let me know what you think. Did you like it? Was it easy to understand and to follow? Do you have any suggestions?
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How to make a luggage tag

After my last trip (to the festival of quilts in Birmingham in early august this year) I ended up waiting for my luggage at Bologna airport and ended up having to put two (!) suitcases back onto the conveyor belt, because even though they were identical to my suitcase, they weren't mine. So I decided to make a big and resistant luggage tag that would make it easy to identify my suitcase in the future.

Here's how I made it:

The tag measure 10x12 cm. For the front I prepared a quilted sandwich of that size folding the fabric over on the top (the other three sides will go into the binding).

 For the backside I cut a rectangle of transparent plastic (the variety that you buy in sheets sa cover for folders etc.). I then took three pieces of fabric folded in half (right side out) that I sewed onto the plastic. I placed the fold over the plastic from the right side and sewed it in place. Like that the double raw edges face outside and will go into the binding).

 For the upper edge (where there will be no binding) I folded the piece in half wrong side out and closed the one long side. 

Then I turned the right side out and added it to the top o the backside just as I did with the previous three pieces (the seam upwards).

 

For the binding I prepared a long strip (at least double the three side lengths with raw edges). I joined the two short sides to prepare a loop and then ironed the raw egdes  for the seam allowance towards the wrong side of the fabric on both sides.

For binding, I placed the front and back sides on top of each other, right sides out and clipped the binding in place all areound the three raw edges, folding mitered corners in the two angles.

I started sewing just above the tag, attaching the binding all the way around the rectangle and then continuing on around the loop, closing the strip all the way round.

Now all it takes is a cardboard rectangle where to write your information.

And this is how it lookes on the suitcase:

 Have you made a project following this tutorial? Let me know what you think. Did you like it? Was it easy to understand and to follow? Do you have any suggestions?
Write a comment or send me an email using the contact form at the bottom of the page.

How to bind a quilt (hand-finished)

It's a lot faster to machine-bind a quilt (for tutorial click here), but of course the stitching remains on top of the binding and thus in plain view. That can be avoided with hand-finished binding, where the binding is attached to the front of the quilt with the machine and then finished on the back by hand.

What you need to do:

Cut your strips and join them together to have one long strip that measures at least about 20 inches more than the circumference of your quilt. Refer to the picture below for how to join the smaller pieces to one long strip.

Before attaching the binding to the quilt, iron the strip in half lengthwise, right side out.

Now place the strip along the edge of the front of the quilt with the raw edges of the strip facing outwards.

Attach the binding to the quilt with a simple straight stitch, sewing 1/4 of an inch from the edge of the binding / quilt. Start in the middle of any side of the quilt and leave about 10 inches of the strip unattached, you will need that later to finish the binding.

Sew all along the edge of the quilt. When you come to a corner proceed as shown below to create a mitered corner.
First attach the strip up to just 1/4 of an inch from the edge.

Then, without cutting the thread, turn the fabric and stitch backwards, until the needle leaves the quilt.

Now first fold the strip upwards in a 90° angle.

And then fold it back down along the edge of the quilt as shown below.

 

 

Move the quilt back under the needle and continue to sew as before 1/4 of an inch from the edge of tht quilt/binding.

Continue sewing until you reach your starting point. Stop sewing about 5 inches from the beginning of the seam and leave about 10 inches of the strip from the end of the seam. It should look like this:

 

 

 Now you need to measure the two ends and sew them together so that they perfectly fit into the remaining opening.

To do that place them on top of each other along the edge of the quilt and mark the point where you want them to be joined.

 Them place the two strips (open, not folded in half) right side to right side (to make sure the strips are not twisted, first attach them with a pin and make sure they fold and turn as they are supposed to) and sew them together diagonally just as you joined the strips earlier.

When everything is right, sew the two ends together, cut off the excess fabric and attach the last piece of the binding to the quilt.

OK, the front is done. Now fold the binding up on the front.

And over onto the back to cover the raw edge of the quilt.

Fold it onto the back so that it covers the stitching (the seam with which you attache it to the front).

 Attach the binding to the back by hand. Insert the needle into the backing of the quilt just where the binding is supposed to finish and back out a little over to your left (or right, according to the direction you prefer to sew). With the same movement stick the needle through the very edge of the binding.

When you come to the corner attach the side you are working on just to the edge, then fold the binding over the corner and continue on the next side.

Finish to attach the binding all around the quilt.

This is what it will look like on the back.

 

While this is the binding seen from the front.

 

 

 

Have you made a project following this tutorial? Let me know what you think. Did you like it? Was it easy to understand and to follow? Do you have any suggestions?

Write a comment or send me an email using the contact form at the bottom of the page.