'Tis Wonderful, 'Tis Fabulous

We made these cute "Place Mat Bags" last year for an Enrichment Activity. I have been wanting to make another one and finally did. These two place mats came together as a deal, so I made two. I will use one for Cora's stuff when she goes to someones house to be babysat and the other I am giving to my niece Julia. I decided that there would have to be something to tell them apart, so I found these little tags that can go onto presents to make the bags different. You could use these bags as a purse, diaper bag, scripture tote, gift bag and so on and so on.

If you haven't made these before and can't wait to make one of your own, here's how:

1. Purchase a place mat that you like and 2 yards of coordinating ribbon.


2. lay the place mat flat horizontally


3. to pin on the ribbon: place the end of the ribbon in the center of the place mat, roughly on the top third. Pin it there and then run it straight to the end of the place mat and pin it there. Lay out the rest of the ribbon leaving room for the handles. The ribbon should loop around and end up overlapping where it started.


4. Sew the ribbon on. When you start at the the end, sew and reverse it a few times to make the connection stronger and then sew to the end. Once at the end, sew and reverse it a few times as well.


5. Once the ribbon is sewn on, fold the place mat in half inside-out so the handles meet up. Sew each edge.


6. If you would like to be done, you could turn it right-side out and be done or you could do one more step to give it a little dimension.


7. While still inside-out, you can pull out each bottom corner to look like a triangle and sew a straight line 1 inch in. Repeat on the other side. This will give the bag a base.


8. Turn the bag right-side-out and you are done!
   

I did both of these in less than an hour. So, it's an quick, easy and inexpensive project. Have fun!