Our post today comes from the New York City craft shop Pins & Needles.
Pins & Needles is a sewing and crafting shop located on the Upper East Side in New York City. We offer an edited collection of unique, modern, and quality fabrics and teach classes to all ages.
This chalkboard place mat is one of our favorite projects to make for and with kids. It uses a special chalkboard fabric that kids can draw on with chalk while eating their dinner. Here is how to make your own at home.
Materials
- Chalkboard Fabric (the dimensions are 12" x 18")
- Wool felt in the same dimensions as the chalkboard fabric
- Hot glue gun or a sewing machine and thread
- Wonder Under (material that bonds fabric to fabric)
- Fabric (optional for decorating the finished place mat)
- Stencil (optional depending on the design you want to create on the place mat)
How to Make the Chalkboard Place Mat
1. Start by cutting out a 12"x18" piece of chalkboard fabric and a piece for the pocket. We made ours 6"x4" but you can make it as big or small as you want.
2. If you decide to embellish your place mat like we did, the next step is to trace the initials or design in pencil on the wrong side of the fabric you chose. We used a fat quarter of fabric, but you can use any scrap pieces you have laying around.
3. Place the Wonder Under with the fabric, wrong sides together (the wrong side of the Wonder Under will be the rough side). Tip: Try not to use fabric with a white background; it does not look as good when it’s done.
4. Iron the fabric and the Wonder Under together so it sticks.
5. Cut out the fabric and the Wonder Under along your design that you drew on the fabric.
6. We also added a design to the front pocket (we cut out a couple of guitars for the boy version and a flower for the girl version). Follow the same instructions for the Wonder Under and the fabric above.
7. When finished with both pieces of fabric, take one at a time and peel the Wonder Under off so you’re left with a sticky piece of fabric. Place this on the piece of felt and iron it on so it sticks. You can also stitch this in place to ensure it stays, but it’s not necessary.
8. Next, peel off the Wonder Under from the fabric designs for the pocket and place them on the small piece of chalkboard fabric. Before you iron this piece, make sure you put a piece of fabric between the iron and the chalkboard fabric, otherwise it will ruin the chalkboard fabric so you can't draw on it.
9. Now you're ready to sew or glue the pieces together. If sewing, don't pin the chalkboard fabric; instead use Scotch tape to hold the pieces together. Test your machine with a small piece of the chalkboard fabric to make sure it works.
10. Start with the pocket and sew the wrong side of the chalkboard pocket to the right side of the larger piece of the chalkboard fabric. Sew with a straight stitch and a 1/4" seam allowance around three sides, leaving the top open.
11. Sew 1/4" seam allowance all the way around the felt and chalkboard fabric to secure them both together. Place a few pieces of chalk in the pocket and you’re finished!
