Heirloom Sewing Mat

When designing and making the Sewficiently Machine Mat I realized we heirloom enthusiasts need our own style of Machine Mat. You know....gorgeous lawn and batiste fabrics, Swiss embroideries, entredeux, Swiss beading and beautiful ribbons....maybe even a little lace.

My brain was working overtime so I pulled out some fabrics to see if my idea was possible. Yup.....a little Liberty Lawn (and I mean a little bit leftover from a trip to London and Liberty in 1996), some pretty print batistes, and some good Swiss insertions. I could put two different color combinations together, one based on blue flowers, one with yellow and peach florals, with what I had on hand. I decided on the blue floral combination.

So after considering the options (and the cost of Liberty fabrics) I set the strips vertically instead of the diagonal. Then the fun began! I loved sewing these gorgeous bits of fabrics together using Heirloom techniques: roll and whip edge, entredeux to fabric, gathered lace to beading or entredeux, beading covering a seam, weaving ribbon through beading and lace rosettes.

I applied the double fold bias binding with decorative stitches: so much easier and pretty! I figured out a neat way to fold over and end bias over bias. Oh...and boning is used in the thread catcher, and it's applied in a very easy way. 

The thread catcher is easily removed along with the cute little pincushion.
I think this Heirloom Machine Mat turned out really well. It's pretty, very functional, and a good way to use up some small amounts of gorgeous lawn fabrics. And it is a new class!