50's Style Placemats: Le Challenge

Once upon a time I bought two tea towels from IKEA and they stayed for a long long time folded in a draw. I liked them so much I was afraid that the Evil Marks of the Kitchen would attack them. The spell I cast to protect them made them fall asleep for one hundred months (?!), hidden away in that draw until...

Fairy Le Challenge arrived and magically opened that draw, freeing the two tea towels from their long sleep...

with a wave of her wand, Fairy Le Challenge transformed the tea towels into four pretty 50's style placemats and made the Breakfast Table their new reign.

And they lived happily ever after.

P.S. Fairy Le Challenge also cast a spell by which the four placemats shall never be attacked by the Evil Marks of the Kitchen... how I wish!!!

Fairy Le Challenge lives here 

(in case you need help with something in one of your draws...):

Zakka Along 2.0: Breakfast Placemat and Napkin

Week two for Zakka Aong 2.0 and the project was for Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner Towels. I must admit I cheated in this one. I've had some plain (and dreary!) linen placemats for a while now, thinking I could cheer them up some how. When I saw Ayumi Takahashi's project for lettered towels, I knew I had to try it on my placemats.

And this is the result! 

That is after solving a few problems:

1) First of all the fusible web wouldn't stick to the material. I discovered this after having ironed all the letters on the placemat and, after leaving it on one side for a while, I picked it up and three dropped off! I tried ironing with a new layer of fusible web but it still didn't work very well (swear I followed the instructions). So I decided it was the kind of material that was too rough.

2) I have a lot of scraps of Tanya Whelan's Dolce and I really like the colours, so I decided to use those. When they were just ironed on I thought they looked too pale and wouldn't stand out on the linen. Luckily the orange zigzag stitch seems to have made them stand out enough.

3) I realised I'm not so good at zigzaging around letters! I love the blanket stitch Debbie has used for her towel, next time I'll try that.

4) I was worried about the frying pan and egg, which I made in a smaller scale to fit the napkin, and not cover the whole thing. I thought they would be really hard to iron in the right place and to stitch around. I like the final result, they were actually easier to sew than the letters.

5) the binding: I cheated here too using ready made bias binding tape but I've promised myself I will use Ayumi's tutorial for making my own when I have more time.

6) Lucy, my sixteen month old daughter, stole the bowl with the cornflakes (really fast) and wouldn't give it back, just when I was trying to take the photos! I gave her some bread instead because it was actually dinner time.

Thank you for joining me for (pretend) breakfast!

 P.S. Thank you Daniele for your help with the photos!

 Linking up at Freshly Pieced for WIP Wednesday, Needle and Thread Thursday with Kelly at My Quilt Infatuation and Finish it up Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts.