Sewing machine mat organiser and thread catcher bin!

Thank you Kmart placemat! You have been serving me and my heavy Bernina really well! Time for a new change though! :D

Really happy with how this turned out! I love the neutral colours and glad I kept it zakka-style rather than use the very colourful scraps (not quite my style) that I had from a quilting project!

Although I did not plan for the spacing, the mat folds up perfectly to the edge of my machine, and neatly too because of the quilting lines! :D

kmart placemat

new organiser mat! :D

tidy when it folds up!

After my recent bigger projects (garments and quilts) and realising that I wanted to solve the untidy issue of having all my tools on the side of the machine, I went to look up on sewing machine mats as I remembered seeing them designed with organisers! :D

After browsing my fabric stash, I decided that I wanted to use a thicker material and ended up choosing these japanese cotton fabrics that I had got from People's Park Complex in Chinatown during one of my trips back to Singapore.

The entire mat measures 17" x 18".

• Front fabric (lighter background with leaf prints): 17 x 18"

• Fusible fleece: 17 x 18" fused to the front fabric

• Backing fabric (darker background with same leaf prints): 2cm more on each of the four sides to accommodate for the binding

• Checkered-print fabric for organiser part: 17 x 9", and folded lengthwise

• Binding strip for top of organiser part: 17" x 4cm

I had initially taken a photo of all the fabric cuts for this mat, but it didn't get saved! ):

• Folded the checkered-print fabric into half lengthwise, and binded the top part as decoration :)

• Basted to the front fabric (fused with fusible fleece on the back)

• Placed the front fabric on top of the backing fabric, with 2cm excess on all its four sides, and marked where the front fabric will be

• Sewed 1 cm down as shown (white stitches)

• Trimmed the corners

• After turning in the corners, I placed the front fabric (basted with organiser), to fit into the backing fabric nicely with its corners mitred! Clipped them all in place.

• View from the front

• View from the back (backing fabric is of same design but darker colour)

• I worried about my scissors and tools poking my stitches, so decided to make a buffer strip for inside of the organiser, like a 'pincushion'.

• Used leftover material from a recent quilting project - flannel+batting

• Trimmed the strip and sewed, and then placed it at the bottom of the inside of the organiser

• Sewed vertical lines to create different sections for my organiser!

• Marked gridlines with a 3cm gap on the front fabric using my Pilot Frixion pen (learnt about this from a youtube quilting video! Marks disappear when ironed :D)

• Sewed along all the lines!

• Grid design visible on the front and back!

But no, something was still lacking! :D

With inspiration from these, I followed this particular thread catcher tutorial with a few modifications!

Two 26 x 21cm pieces of

• outer fabric

• fusible fleece

• lining fabric

(Fabric used is quilting cotton from Spotlight!)

• Ironed/fused the outer fabric to the fusible fleece

• Drew 45° lines with 3cm spacing

• Stitched on them

• Made a little strap from the leftovers of the lining fabric

• Right sides together, sewed along three sides of the outer fabric

• With the inner fabric, left an opening gap of 3" (I got too excited and forgot, and had to seam rip an opening after~)

• Pressing down the corners, I marked 1.5" from the tip/point and drew a line and sewed, and trimmed the corners off

• Pressed seams open after when I could fold the bag down

• Turned the outer bag the right sides out

• Placed the outer into the lining bag (right sides together)

• Pinned the side seams together first

• Almost forgot to add in my strap but thankfully I remembered! Placed it in between the outer & lining bags, at the middle of its length!

• Pinned pinned and sewed!

• Brought the bag out through the opening of the lining bag and sewed the opening close

• Wanted the lining fabric to make a top border, and the seam within made it perfectly easy to fold the lining bag against it :D

• Top stitched the top edge/border

• Button-choosing time! "I choose you!" Sewed it onto my mat, and decided to sew on some snap fasteners too! XD

XD XD XD *Happy dance*~ Seeing the colours make me so happy!