Inside: A tutorial for fabric DIY placemats that are no-sew.

Get ready to spice up your dining experience with eco-friendly creativity! Imagine transforming old fabric into stunning, no-sew placemats that impress your guests. It’s time to unleash your inner DIY enthusiast and embark on a sustainable crafting adventure.

From upcycled denim to colourful scrap fabrics, discover the endless possibilities of repurposing materials to create unique and stylish placemats. With our step-by-step tutorial, you’ll master the art of no-sew placemat making in no time.

Repurposing your old clothes to make things for the home is fun. In the past, I have made a felt rug and jean planters. This time I created upcycled fabric placemats for the table.

Old denim jeans are perfect for repurposing and upcycling within the home. Denim is so robust, and all the lovely shades of indigo that it comes in can look fabulous. The downside is that old jeans can be difficult to sew, especially all the interesting bits like the waistbands, pockets and seams.

Even my superb Bernina sewing machine struggles with a thick denim seam. But don’t worry; you can still make fabulous denim accessories for your home with the right glue.

DIY Fabric Placemats With Denim And Wool Scraps

I used Gorilla Contact Adhesive Clear to make these wool and denim fabric placemats. This is a great glue; it isn’t runny and doesn’t go everywhere; it dries clear and is waterproof. Therefore, you can do so if you spill something on your placemats and need to clean them with a wet cloth.

I could have made denim placemats, but I wanted to add colour. I had some old felted sweater scraps left from other upcycled projects and decided to use these with denim to add colour.

These fabric placemats cost virtually nothing as they are made from repurposed materials. You can add more placemats to your collection every time you wear out an old pair of jeans. Each mat takes about 30 mins to 1 hour to make.

They will go well with my DIY denim table runner and Denim mug rug.

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What You Need

• The seams and hems of old jeans. I cut out the double-stitched seams of jeans that normally run up the inside leg. There is often a double-stitched seam across the back of the jeans, just below the waistband.
• Old felted sweater wool scraps – If you wash wool sweaters on a hot wash in the machine, they will felt.
• Gorilla Contact Adhesive Clear
• Rotary cutter, mat and pins.

DIY No Sew Placemats

Step 1: Cut the felted sweater scraps into strips the same thickness as the denim seams. The best way is with a metal ruler and a rotary cutter.

Step 2: Grab one denim seam and one strip of sweater felt to start making the placemat. Apply a small blob of glue to the seam’s end and the felt’s end. Leave for about 1-2 mins depending on how strong you want the bond, and then press them together.

Step 3: Repeat a few inches further along the seam and glue the denim and felt together. With these placemats, you don’t need to glue the fabrics together all the way along. Just a small blob of glue every few inches will work well.

Step 4: Start coiling the glued fabric strips together. Use the contact adhesive to hold the coil in place. Again, glue every few inches, ensuring a little bit of glue on both surfaces and leaving it to partially dry before pressing together for a few seconds. As the coil gets bigger, I find that it helps to use a few pins to hold it in shape as the glue dries.

Step 5: Carry on coiling to make the fabric placemat until you get the desired size. Smaller coils could be used as drink mats. Add new bits of felt and denim when needed with the glue.

Step 6: Add a reinforcing denim cross to the back of each fabric placemat. To do this, spread the Gorilla Contact Adhesive Clear across the centre of the placemat on the back. Also, spread the glue on a denim seam cut to the diameter of the mat. After about 1 – 2 minutes, push them together. Repeat with another seam going across the other way.

Protecting the Fabric

Even though the glue is waterproof, you may still want to spray the placemats with a protective fabric spray. That way, if any liquid spills on the DIY placemats, it will run off.

These fabric placemats look lovely and are so thick they make great heat protectors. You can put hot dishes on these coiled mats and protect your table simultaneously.

Other Placemat & Denim Ideas

There are many more ideas for making placemats here. These woven denim coasters could be upscaled into placemats if you want another denim version. The mats on the dining table look fabulous with a patchwork denim fabric bowl.

If you liked this upcycle, you might want to check out the gorgeous no-sew denim rug I made from waistbands. If you prefer something softer under your feet, check out my felt rug made from recycled sweaters. There are a lot more no-sew denim projects here.

I have some hand-sewn patchwork denim placemats on the blog too.

For more denim ideas, visit the DIYideacentre.