FrugalSewing.com - Matching Coffee Container and Placemats

COFFEE CONTAINER AND PLACMEMATS/DRIP CATCHERS
Easy Project for Beginners

We grind our own coffee. We have a coffee maker that hangs below a cabinet and sometimes, there's a drip or two from the pot when we pour. So we needed two things - container to hold the ground coffee and a mat to catch the drips to match the container, one that wouldn't show coffee spills.

I'm showing the photos as examples. The instructions are extremely simple, so I did not photograph the items as I made them. Let me know if you have any questions by using the contact form on the front page.

I used a large Cool Whip container, about 1-1/2" pinking shear cut squares of the coffee bean fabric, and a decopage medium. For the placemats, I used an old quilt top for the backs, brown and white gingham I had hanging around, and the remainder of the coffee bean fabric.

The Cool Whip container was cleaned with Dawn to make sure all residue was removed. I cut a long strip and decopaged that around the bottom edge and another long and narrow strip to go round the top edge of the bowl itself. Then I added the fabric squares one at a time, adding medium under and on top of each piece of fabric. The circle of coffee bean fabric was measured by using the insert that was in the Cool Whip lid, but you can eyeball a circle and stretch it ever so slightly to fit when you decopage it on the lid. It is one piece of fabric rather than smaller ones like I used on the sides of the bowl. I left this to dry overnight after adding a last layer of decopage medium. The next day, I added a coat of clear vinyl and left that to dry overnight. The vinyl makes it washable (not in the dishwasher; just by hand and gently so).	This mat was simple to make. I followed a basket weave design. I started with 4" x 2" strips, but the squares were about 3" when I was done with them. I had torn strips rather than rotary cut them, so their sizes were not exact. I used an old receiving blanket that had been laundered as the "batting." The backing is a piece of an old cutter quilt top that I keep around for fun projects. I did a wavy freestyle quilting pattern with the sewing machine. For the binding, I used strips of brown and white gingham that I had torn and attached to one another. My corners are not great, but they'll do.
This is the back of the basket weave coffee mat. You can see the wavy quilting a little better here. I used brown thread as I did want it to show.	The second mat was made using random strip quilting. I didn't use a pattern. I just started adding a strip here and a strip there and went with whatever design worked at the time. I cut a heart out of the coffee bean fabric and machine appliqued that on. I finished the edges of the applique with a fray stopping product as I wanted these to be machine washable. The strip quilting was done through the batting and the backing, so I did not do a specific quilting design on this one.
Again, I tore the strips rather than cut them. It just seemed like the thing to do at the time. I believe if I did these again, I would use the rotary cutter. You can use strips of even widths or uneven widths. Strip piecing is covered in other projects on this site (like here with placemats and here with Christmas stockings), so I won't go into how it's done.	Again, I used an old cutter quilt top for the back and a recycled receiving blanket for the batting. The binding was created as above for the first placemat except that this one used the coffee bean fabric.

Little decorative touches like this are so easy to make and you can use fabrics and items you have on hand. Overall, this project cost me nothing. I had all the materials on hand and have used all except the coffee bean fabric for other things. That is frugal sewing at its finest!

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