How to Sew a Chalkboard Activity Placemat

Chalkboard placemats make a great gift, whether for your little one at home, on the road, or for a friend with creative kids.

Materials

• 13″ X 17″ Piece of Chalk Board fabric
• 14″ x 18″ Piece of cotton batting
• 2 coordinating fat quarters
• 40wt cotton thread to match fat quarters
• 12wt white cotton thread
• 80/12 Universal sewing machine needle
• 14/90 universal sewing machine needle
• Can of adhesive spray
• Binding clips
• Painter’s tape
• Chalk making pencil
• BERNINA Zigzag foot with non-stitck sole #52 C
• BERNINA Patchwork foot # 37 or 37 D or BERNINA Patchwork foot # 97 D
• BERNINA Edgestitch foot # 10

Chalkboard Fabric tips before starting

• Use a foot with a non-stick sole when stitching directly on fabric.
• Do not pin into the fabric. Pin will leave unwanted holes.
• Do not iron fabric.

Instructions

Preparing the mat:

Round the corners of the Chalk Board fabric using a template or plastic lid form your kitchen

Cut a 14″ x 18″ piece of fabric from one of the fat quarters. Layer this piece of fabric wrong side up with the batting and the Chalkboard fabric, using Adhesive spray between the layers. This will keep the pieces from sliding around during stitching.

Pocket:

Using the pocket pattern provided below, cut a pocket from each of the coordinating Fat Quarters.

Chalkboard Placemat Pocket Pattern

Thread the machine and bobbin with 40wt cotton thread and attach ¼ presser foot. With right sides of pocket pieces together, stitch a ¼ around entire pocket leaving an opening at the bottom to turn right side out. After turning, press pocket.

Fold over the flap per the fold line on the pocket pattern. Using the BERNINA Edgestitch foot #10 and moving the needle position two spaces to the left, topstitch just the pocket flap in place.

Place pocket where desired on the placemat. Use tape to hold the pocket in position. Pins will leave holes in Chalkboard fabric. Do not stitch over tape. Remove tape as stitching approaches.

Stitch on the Chalkboard fabric:

Using a chalk marking lightly draw tic-tac-toe lines on the placemat.  Change to 90/14 universal needle, 12wt white cotton thread (leave the 40wt thread in the bobbin) and the BERNINA zigzag foot with on-stitch sole #52C. Choose stitch #6, triple stitch (on the BERNINA 780) and increase stitch length to 4.0. Stitch over the chalk lines drawn onto the placemat.

Now that the pocket and tic-tac-toe lines are stitched, trim backing and batting even with chalk fabric.

Binding:

From the fat quarter not used for the placemat backing, cut 2 ¼” bias binding. After seaming strips together the bias binding should be at least 50″ long. Attach to the placemat using a ¼” seam allowance.  Turn binding to the back and hand stitch in place. Use binding clips to hold binding in place instead of pins.

If you prefer to attach your binding by completely sewing machine there are several BERNINA binding attachments.

Enjoy stitching this adorable placemat for someone special!