Easter Bunny Burlap Placemats

1.  Cut your burlap placements to the size you would like them to be.  Here’s an easy trick to cutting burlap that the nice lady at Joanns showed me.  Where you would like to cut, pull one of the single strings of burlap all the way out, slowly and carefully.  If it breaks, that’s okay, just pull out the broken thread and keep pulling the rest of the piece.  When the string is gone, you now have a nice straight line that you can cut along to make sure that you are cutting evenly.  Love this trick!

2.  I measured some of my Pottery Barn place mats as a guide, so I wanted my finished product to measure 14″x20.”  I cut my burlap place mats to about 15 1/2″ x 21 1/2,” to allow for seam allowances.

I chose to sew the edges of each place mat under with a small seam allowance, but you can either skip the sewing altogether, or just sew a straight stitch around the edges without folding the material under (which will help reduce the fraying).  I think that sewing the edges gives it a nice finished look!

If you want to sew the edges under, I have an easy trick for you!  I took a very hot iron, folded under each side of the place mats, one edge at a time, and ironed the seam down.  I placed a dish towel on top of the burlap, just to be sure that I didn’t melt it.  Worked perfectly!  Ironing the edges down kept them nice and flat, so that I didn’t have to pin at all, and they stayed down perfectly so I could sew nice straight lines around all of the edges.

3.  Sew around the edges of your place mats.  I used a stitch on my machine that made three stitches, since burlap is thick, just to be safe.  You can hardly even see the stitching through the burlap.

4.  I used my Martha Stewart foam pouncers, my Martha craft paint, and my Martha holiday stencils.  Yeah, I’m a sucker for anything with her name on it 😉  If you don’t have the Martha stencils, you can cut your own stencil from a Cricut, Silhouette, or any other die cutting machine.  You could also google  “rabbit silhouette,” and then make your own stencil out of poster board or cardboard.

5.  Hold your stencil firmly in the bottom right hand corner of your place mat.  Add some white paint to your pouncer or stencil brush, and pounce up and down over the stencil onto the burlap, making sure to hold down the stencil firmly so it doesn’t slip.  Once the whole bunny is evenly painted white, carefully lift up the stencil.  Let the paint dry, and you’re ready to go!  I am not going to wash my place mats, because I don’t know how burlap holds up in the wash, but I will definitely spot clean these.

And there you have it!  I bought some very similar place mats (minus the bunnies) at Pottery Barn when I was a newlywed, and spent quite a bit of money for a set of 6.  These only cost a couple dollars at the most, and they look just as good!  I can’t wait to use these for some lovely spring dinners!

I hope you give these a try!  Happy sewing!

I also made a burlap Easter Bunny Hanging that matches the placemats that you might like!

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xo, Laura