Placemat with Napkin Pocket DIY

We love having lots of picnics during the summer whether we’re camping or just sitting on our porch! Eating outside is just so nice. It is a bit frustrating, though, when the wind starts blowing everything away! My kids always seem to forget to put their plate on their napkin and I end up chasing it through the yard! I decided that we needed a better solution. Then, I realized that a placemat with pocket would hold the napkin and even silverware. The pocket is fun and useful and my kids actually put their napkin in it. Win win win!! The placemat with pocket is a super fast project that is really easy!!

Materials

• Fabric: I used oilcloth so that it is waterproof and easy to clean! I ordered a yard and got 4 placemats and 4 pockets out of it with some leftover.
• Wash away wonder tape
• Non-stick presser foot

Cut your placemat and pocket

• Cut 1 placemat piece and 1 pocket piece.
• You can make your placemat any size or shape that you want!
• I cut rectangles 14 inches by 18 inches. My pocket is 5 inches by 4 inches.

Tips for sewing oilcloth

• Use a non-stick presser foot. This is sometimes called a Teflon foot. It helps make sure that the oilcloth doesn’t stick to the presser foot and not feed well through your machine.
• Use clips or wonder tape. Pins will put small holes in your oilcloth that won’t go away like on other fabric.
• Make sure you are sewing where you want to be sewing! Just like with pins, the sewing machine needle will put holes in your fabric that won’t come out later. So, seam ripping wouldn’t be ideal. Not that seam ripping is ever really the goal haha!

Time to sew your placemat with pocket!

Hemming

• I did not hem my placemat or pocket. With oilcloth, it won’t fray so it isn’t totally necessary to hem. If you want to skip hemming, jump down to the next heading.
• If you choose to hem, fold your raw edges 1/2 inch toward the wrong side of the fabric.
• Sew along the edge.
• Do this on all 4 sides of your placemat.
• For the pocket, fold the top edge toward the wrong side of the fabric by 1/2 inch and stitch it down.
• Fold the other 3 sides 1/2 inch toward the wrong side of the fabric. You can use some wash away wonder tape to hold it down for now.

Sewing pocket piece onto placemat

• Put wash away wonder tape on the sides and bottom of the pocket piece

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• Peel off the backing of the wonder tape so that it sticks to the placemat
• Decide where you want it on the placemat
• I put my pocket about 3/4 in from the left side and about 1 and 1/4 inch from the bottom, but again, you can personalize this and put it wherever you want to!
• Stick your pocket to the placemat

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• Sew the two sides and bottom of the pocket to the placemat.
  • Start at the top of the pocket, sew down 1 side. When you get the bottom, pivot 90 degrees and sew along the bottom. Pivot again to sew up the other side and stop at the top of the pocket. Don’t sew across the top of the pocket, otherwise your pocket will be closed and you wouldn’t be able to put anything in it 🙂
• I used a fancy stitch to make mine look a little more interesting. Plus, I basically use the same 3 stitches on my machine and I sometimes feel the need to actually use one of the 100s of other stitches that I have!

You’re done!! You made a placemat with pocket!

• Didn’t I tell you that it was a fast and easy project! I love making things that are useful, especially when they take such a small amount of time! Now, go have a picnic and don’t worry about your napkin blowing away!
• If you have problems with your tablecloth blowing around too, I made a weighted hem tablecloth a few weeks ago that may help with that! Read that blog here!

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