How to Make a Placemat Purse

The nice thing about making a purse out of a placemat is that the purse will already be lined so you don’t have to worry about lining it. There are many cool placemats out there with beading, sequins, cool retro designs, etc. See what you can find. The possibilities are endless.

Supplies:

• placemat
• hot glue gun
• sewing machine
• coordinating thread
• purse handles
• ribbon
• optional: fur trim, embellishments

1. Pick out a decorative placemat. Try not to have one with wording on it since you will fold it in half. The one I chose was a red faux velvet.

2. Fold the placemat in half with the right sides facing each other. Pin the sides in place.

3. You can either sew a straight line down each edge where the pins are or you can sew on a curve to give your bag a different shape. This is what I did for this project. Make sure you sew back and forth when you start so you get a strong stitch as this is where most of your wear and tear can happen.

4. After you sew the sides trim.

5. Turn purse right side out.

6. Cut pieces of coordinating ribbon and thread them through your purse handles.

7. Pin them in place and sew them back and forth a few times to get a really strong stitch so the handles can handle the weight of the contents of your purse.

At this point you can be done or you can embellish it further with bows, fur, decorative trim, tassels, etc.

With the bows I just hot glued them on. You can also hot glue any trim or decorative tasssels on as well.

How easy was that!? If you make one I want to see the pictures!