Decorate with a Fall Table Mat Made Using Upholstery Samples

Free supplies are always nice when it comes to decorating our homes. Home improvement stores, wall paper stores and interior design shops are great places for free things. All of these stores carry sample books for a wide variety of finishes to home decor. The clients look through the books and get a hands-on, as well as a visual of the fabric, paper, carpet or tile choices.

When new sample books arrive for the next season, the old ones become out-dated and are often discarded. Check with any of these stores and get on their waiting list for those old books. Wallpaper samples are wonderful for paper crafting projects and upholstery samples make terrific one-of-a-kind sewing projects.

My latest decorating project involved using several small upholstery samples to create a beautiful fall table mat for my dining table. The luxurious upholstery fabric would have cost a fortune if I had purchased each piece separately, but since I used a sample book, it was free. I have a collection of samples in various sizes, so I also had a piece big enough for the back.

Step 1
Take apart your books. They are usually bound with a cardboard sleeve, and connected under the sleeve by staples or screws. You could just cut out the fabric, but there is a lot of fabric under that sleeve.

Step 2
Cut 20, 5-inch squares from the fabric samples. Since I used small samples, I needed 25 different fabric choices. If your samples are larger, you could use less.

Step 3
Arrange the squares into a four square by four square grid. Sew the squares together using a 1/4-inch seam. Press the seams open.

Step 4
Choose thread for top stitching that will coordinate with the color theme of your fall table mat. I chose two, a mustard-gold and a dusty-brown. A metallic gold or copper would also look nice. Top stitch along each gridded seam line, 1/8 inch on each side of the seams. This adds a decorative finish to the front of the table mat and secures the raw edges of each seam flat on the back.

Step 5
I used a 4 1/2-inch die-cut leaf as the pattern for my leaf appliques. You could also use a cookie cutter, clip art, coloring pages or a real leaf as your pattern. Trace five leaves onto the paper side of lightweight fusible web. Heavier weight fusible web will create a build-up of glue on your sewing needle, causing skipped stitches and broken thread. Cut around the leaves, at least 1/4 inch larger than the traced line. This cut does not need to be exact.

Step 6
Choose five more fabric samples for the leaves. Lay the fabric wrong side up on your ironing board. Place a traced fusible web leaf on each sample with the glue side down. Iron the fusible webbing to the fabric. Cut out each of the leaf shapes.

Step 7
Peel the paper from the leaves and arrange the leaves on your table mat with the glue side down. Iron the leaves to adhere them to the table mat. Applique around each leaf using a zig-zag stitch.

Step 8
Measure the finished dimensions of your table mat top. Choose a fabric sample that is as big or larger than than your dimensions. I lucked out and found a piece the exact right size. Place the large sample right side up on your work surface. Place the table mat top wrong side up on the sample. Trim around the sample, even with the mat top. Pin the edges together. Sew around the edges of the mat using a 1/4-inch seam. Leave a 4-inch opening in the center of one edge.

Step 9
Clip the corners and turn the mat right side out through the opening. Use the tip of your scissors to poke the corners into crisp angles. Iron the edges of the mat. Top stitch around the edge of the mat as close to the edge as possible. This will finish the mat and close the opening at the same time.