Fabric Coaster Tutorial and a GIVE-AWAY!

Upfront immediately - this isn't original to me. I learned this one recently from Encourager from Be Encouraged. Her tutorial was so helpful, and this project so simple and yet very finished and useful. I've made two sets of four so far. Why another tute? Well, just because it's fun! I changed mine slightly from the directions she gave, to accommodate a heavier bottom fabric. Just a little twist.

So, mes belles et mes beaux, choose yourselves four top fabrics and one bottom fabric. I used a flannel for the bottom, but a smooth cotton would work fine too. It's just what I had on hand, the trimmings off a quilt-back.


For each coaster, you need five pieces, 5"X5", one of each fabric.


Take the four top fabrics, and fold them in half, "wrong" sides touching. Press.


Bottom fabric is FACE UP. (Later the whole shebang gets turned inside out.) Take one top fabric and lay the raw edge along one raw edge of the bottom fabric.


Take another top fabric and lay it along the next raw edge, as in the picture. Continue with all four fabrics. The last top strip gets tucked in under the first one.


Like so.

There. You're done the "piecing". Pin it!




Now, stitch a quarter-inch seam all along the outside.


Take the pins out. Dock the corners and trim the seam allowance to 1/8", being careful not to snip through your stitches. Because, oh, how that will grieve you and cause your teeth to gnash when it you turn it through and find an unholy hole!

Turn it inside out. You just reach your canny fingers through the middle of the front fabrics and wiggle it inside out. I don't have a picture of this, and I don't have a better way of describing it. But it's easy, and You Can Do It!

Take something thin and blunt (I used the blade on my paper scissors, which is almost as blunt as my steak knives), and poke the corners out from the inside to square it up a little.

What have you? A finished coaster! Just press it. With an iron. Stamping on it with your boot doesn't give nearly the same crisp edge.


Now, press it to your bosom if you will, or tie a ribbon around the set you've made and tuck it in with some cookies for the nice person who's hosting the party you'll attend tomorrow.

Ta Da! Ta Done!

I enjoyed that so much, I'm gonna do it again! If for whatever reason you don't feel like making your own, here's the Big Opportunity. Leave a comment, and I'll draw a name. The winner gets a set of four coasters, made in the colours of his/her choice, from the wilds of my stash.

Talk to me, baby!