Romantic "Irish" Lace Placemat

With Ireland on my mind for March, I thought I would make these placemats.  They remind me of all things romantic and Irish lace.  

 Materials:

For 4 placemats you will need:

3/4 yd. of  44"-45" wide fabric (linen works great)

7  3/8 yds.  of 2" wide flat lace trim

thread

 

I had a really old pattern for this, but all you need is a placemat (mine was 13"x19") to pin down for a pattern and you are set.  Lay your pattern out with the width of the fabric and cut out 4.

 

Pin the wrong side of the lace trim to the right side of the placemat having the outer edge of lace along raw edge.

 

I went on and sewed this in place starting the seam out from the edge of the width of the lace.

 

Here is the placement of where I stitched that seam.

 

 

When I sew the next piece of lace; I start in the corner where the two pieces of lace meet to sew the next piece of lace in place.

Miter trim at the corners.  Start and end at one corner using the fabric underneath as a guide.  Leave yourself enough lace to create a seam for this.

 Turn under and lap the ends at the corner, so that it looks mitered.  Stitch close to inner edge.

 

I have already stitched this seam, but I am showing how I sewed it.

 

On the wrong side of the placemat trim within a 1/4" of stitching. 

 

You can now trim the lace that is sticking out at the corner.

 

After you trim it, it will look like this.

 

Now, you will trim all the fabric away under the lace within a 1/4" of stitching.

 

Press all trimmed edges toward placemat.

 

On the right side top-stitch placemat close to first stitching, catching the raw edge in back and sewing it the way you pressed it.

 

You have now have made a lovely "Irish" placemat.

I am linking this to Cindy's My Romantic Home Show and Tell Friday.  Please go to her site and see all the wonderful things bloggers have been doing to make their home romantic.  I am also linking this to Just Something I Whipped Up at The Girl Creative.  Please go over over and check out all the great entries there.