How to Make Reversible Placemats

In my opinion, all placemats should be reversible for a couple of reasons. Firstly, it’s great to have two different designs in one placemat, because it means more design options with a smaller storage requirement. Also, with young children, messes happen and it’s helpful to be able to flip the placemat over and get additional use out of it. These reversible placemats are easy to make and will hold up to lots of use. I paired a pretty green and white gingham with a floral chintz, but you can pair any two coordinating patterns you like. In this post, How to Make Reversible Placemats, I show you how to make a set of six 14” by 18” placemats.

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Choosing Fabric

I like using a medium-weight cotton for placemats. This is because the heavier cotton is fairly sturdy and tends to keep its shape and resist wrinkles better than lighter-weight cotton. Choose any two fabrics that coordinate with each other. You could select fabric that coordinates in terms of colour, or you could choose the same fabric in two different colourways. Two different colours of ticking stripe would be really cute! Prewash and machine dry your fabric before you start this project so that your final product can be washed without worry of shrinkage and distortion. One of my favourite places to purchase fabric online is Fabric.com.

Materials and Equipment

• Sewing machine
• Iron
• 3 yards fabric 1 (45” wide)
• 3 yards fabric 2 (45” wide)
• Thread to coordinate with fabrics
• Tape measure
• Pencil
• Chopstick for pushing out corners
• Fabric scissors
• Pins
• Hand sewing needle

How to Make Reversible Placemats

• Start with the fabric that has a check pattern or stripe pattern so you can freehand cut along the straight lines of the design. Measure and mark six pieces 19½” wide by 15½” high. Cut along marked lines.
• Pin each cut piece of fabric 1 to fabric 2 with the right sides facing.
• Carefully cut fabric 2 along pinned edges of fabric 1. Leave pins in for sewing.

• Sew a ½” seam around the edges of the pinned pieces, leaving a 3” gap along one side (not near a corner).

• Trim the excess fabric off the corners as shown in the photo.

• Turn the placemats right side out, pushing the corners out with a chopstick.
• Press the placemats with the iron (hot setting), ensuring that the edges of both fabrics line up nicely.
• Topstitch around the perimeter of the placemats, about ½” in from the outside edges.
• Use a needle and thread to close up the 3” opening.

Styling

I created this tablescape that works equally well with either side of the placemats. I kept the centerpiece simple with a variety of faux greenery including ferns, silver dollar eucalyptus, and flowers. The place setting consists of simple white dishes topped with ferns and peonies from our garden. And then I added some pretty coloured glasses with a pressed fern design. Looking at the photos, which side of the fabric do you prefer?

Gingham Fabric:

Floral Chintz Fabric:

Are you interested in some of my other sewing projects. My favourites are Easy DIY ticking stripe napkins, Adorable fabric pumpkin tutorial, and Vintage sofa reupholstery of a family heirloom.

I hope you have enjoyed this post and learning how to make reversible placemats. I hope I’ve convinced you that all placemats should be reversible!