String Ring Table Mat Finish

The string ring table mat is finished and in place under the Christmas tree.  I had it all pretty much done last night, except for just enough quilting to hold the layers together, which I did this morning. 

I made this one a little differently than my tutorial.  As I mentioned in the last post, I changed the size of the Dresden wedges.  And instead of fusing the center circle in place, I used a different technique.  I sewed a piece of lightweight, non-fusible interfacing to my circle, trimmed the seam to 1/8 inch, slit the interfacing and turned the circle through the opening.

It gives you get a nice smooth circle that, after pressing, is ready to applique onto the center, which I did by machine with a decorative stitch.  Hard to see in the picture because the red Auriful thread matched my fabric so perfectly.  

I also used a piece of muslin this time as a lining (there's no batting) to give it a little bit of stability and weight.  It's sewn together pillowcase style, leaving an opening for turning.  You layer your sheet of muslin, then the string ring right side up on top of that,then the backing right side down on top of the ring.

As you can see, I fussy-cut my circle from a snowflake print fabric.  This was Plan B, believe it or not.  Plan A was a green plaid center circle, which I accidentally cut too small (forgot to add the seam allowance since I wasn't going to fuse it).  I only had the small scrap of green, not enough to cut another, bigger circle, so I had to rummage through the scraps for an alternative.  When I exhausted my bin of green scraps and nothing seemed quite right, I opened a bin of reds, and bingo!

The back is a pretty Vintage Holiday Wreath fabric from Spoonflower that I was a lucky winner of in Lara's giveaway last year at BuzzinBumble.  It fit the circle perfectly, and makes the whole thing reversible!

We found this little wrought iron table at an antique store quite a few years ago.  The table itself isn't an antique, but the parts are. 

I'm not sure where the round part came from for the top, but the feet are from an old sewing machine.

I didn't see the need for a rickrack edge on this topper because the edge of the wrought iron table kind of does the job of embellishment. 

Our tabletop tree is small but can't be beat for the ease of setting it up.  Especially since I leave the ornaments on it year round and just throw a cover on it in storage.  ;)  If you had any question about my level of laziness when it comes to Christmas decorating, there's your answer! 

It may seems a little stark at the moment, but it always looks better with some presents underneath it.  Better start wrapping!



Linking to Can I Get a Whoop-Whoop at Confessions of a Fabric Addict.