St. Patrick's Day Sewing :-)

My husband's family is Irish and I'm a wannabe, so in honor of the upcoming holiday I made chair covers and place mats :-)

Our chairs are classic 1950's with metal frame and padded vinyl back and seats. They've been well loved, but are the most comfortable chairs, so I spruce them up with covers for the top. Some are holiday themed and some match the kitchen. (The chair cover is folded up to allow viewing of both sides of the place mat.)

To make the chair covers fit our chairs, I laid the chair back down on a piece of newspaper, traced loosely around the shape. I then cut it out 1/2" from the traced line, for seam allowance, (except the hem, which is a 1 1/2" longer than the traced line.) I cut out two pieces, sew around the outside, press the hem and sew it. Simple and quick!

The place mats, are three layers of muslin, sandwiched between two coordinating fabrics. One is themed, the other in a pin dot, but I added a shamrock I cut out from the chair cover fabric. Because I planned to fray the edge of the place mat, I left the raw edge of the shamrock and stitched around the edge about a quarter inch in. I added the shamrock to the pin dot first, stacked the fabric, pinned and sewed a 5/8" all around the outside. Snipped around the outside and washed to enhance the fraying. It measures 14 x 18.

Both projects are quick and easy. I warn you, if you haven't tried fraying before, it's addictive.