DIY Natural Linen Placemats

I have been lusting after some linen placemats for quite a while now, namely those by Fog Linen. The thing is, I really couldn't justify paying $16 each for placemats...especially when:

1. I can sew
2. I have kids
3. I can't afford to spend $16 plus shipping on placemats

By the way, don't you just LOVE these teak boards and knives I found at a rummage sale for 25c apiece? They are called frühstücksbrettchen which basically means breakfast boards. They're used in Northen Germany and Scandinavia for breakfast and other bread based meals. My husband's family has always used them and we had been using some terrible warped pine ones until now!

Back to the placemats...

Imagine my excitement when I found pure linen at Fabrics-store.com for under $7 a metre! I went ahead and ordered quite a bit to make my own. Here's how I did it:

Here is the 6oz weight, marked out into 39cm x 49cm rectangles. I used a pencil because my fabric chalk wasn't showing up on it. I cut it with scissors because my cutting mat isn't big enough.

And I had a lovely stack of mats. The end. Haha, just kidding.

Sorry for the blurry pic, but this is the best shot to show you that I turned the edges over twice and pressed them (total seam allowance is 2cm, so 1cm per fold).

Here's a better pic showing you...I don't know. Well the pressed hem, I suppose.

I then machined around the rectangle, not bothering to mitre the edges or do each hem separately. I just sewed a box. This may come back to bite me, but I was in a hurry while the kids were napping.