I was contacted on Friday with a request to make a custom set of 6 placemats as a wedding gift. As is typical, the couple had registered for some dishware, and I was able to use the colors of the dishes as a jumping off point for fabric selection. The dishware are orange and jade, with rich cocoa and light cream accents:
Orange Jars Tourron Dinnerware
Jade Jars Tourron Dinnerware
I am really making a lot of placemats these days, huh? Well, I have learned a few things as I have made quite a few recently. One is that charging for the raw materials and labor like I do for baby and custom requested quilts makes the pricing of placemats unreasonably high. So I try to use up as much fabric out of my stash as possible when making placemats. I also charge a very low hourly rate ($5/hr) and a minimal fabric restocking fee ($10-$15) if I can use fabric entirely from my stash. Is this the best thing to do? I don’t know, but charging upwards of $200 for a set of 6 placemats also seems unruly.
Well, I sat down in front of my computer screen with my Kona color card and matched to the colors of the dishware as best I could. I thought that any orange fabrics needed be in the Carrot or Tangerine colors, the brown as Mohogany or similar, and the Jade green as Jade or Candy Green. I went to my stash and low and behold I had plenty of fabrics that worked!
Fabric Pull
Side note: photographing orange is hard.
I ended up down-selecting to only 3 of the greens, as that worked best for the pattern I selected for the placemat top.
Orange Jade Placemat
The fabric I used for the lattice and binding of the placemats is a fabric I had purchased back in 2010 to use as the backing for a friend’s baby quilt. However, when I got the fabric home I realized that all the fancy “swirls” really spelled out Coffee. I did not think that was very appropriate for a baby quilt, so I purchased something else to use for the backing and this Coffee print has been sitting languishing in my stash. I fussy cut the heck out of it, and I don’t think the word Coffee is visible in the placemats. I am so proud to have successfully used that fabric and removed it from my stash – it is all gone! Yeah! Have you ever had a fabric mistake like that?
Orange Jade Placemat Set
I quilted an all over meandering loop pattern for the placemats. I used a variegated orange thread in the bobbin and a teal thread for the top.
Orange Jade Placemat Set
I did so much fussy cutting of the binding fabric that I ended up a bit short, so you might notice that 3 of the set have an additional orange accent as part of the binding.
Orange Jade Placemat Set
Each placemat finished out at 13″ tall by 19″ wide (prewash).
Orange Jade Placemat Set
The backing for each placemat is a solid orange batik that is also used in the piecing for the top of the placemats.
Orange Jade Placemat Set
Overall, I really love how these turned out. I think they are a rather stunning color combination that I would have never really put together on my own without the dishware inspiration. I like it so much I keep thinking about the remaining fabric and wondering if there is enough for a set of 2 placemats for my husband and I.
They are beautiful. Were you able to work out a reasonable price??
Great thinking using the wedding registry for colors, they are beautiful. I only make place mats for family -they buy the fabric and then buy me lunch.
Those came out really nice! I wish I had known you had coffee fabric, I would have taken it off your hands!!
These turned out great. I think you still need to make it worth you while and should charge at least minimum wage. 🙂 You have made so many placemats. Are you getting faster?
I love your color choices! Those look really nice.
I love these. The color combination is unexpected and works so well together. You are my inspiration Yvonne……my 5 placemats are still waiting for me to quilt them! 🙂
It was a stroke of brilliance to use their dishware choices to guide your colour selection.
It’s so hard to price one’s own work. I have ended up pricing things based on covering the cost of materials plus whatever my gut tells me is fair to both of us. If I look at something from a consumer’s viewpoint and think I wouldn’t pay that, I know it’s priced too high. If I look at it and feel dissatisfied/resentful, I know I’m not charging enough. It’s a fine balance, and isn’t based on attaching a fee to my time. (If I did that, everything would cost at least a thousand dollars!!! lol) I have also recorded sizes and prices of things I’ve sold so I can be somewhat consistent.
If you are happy with your pricing, and it sounds like you are, then go with it. 🙂
Very nice! I love it when I fabric that that was discarded from one project works perfectly in another 🙂
You are inspiring me to do some much needed placemats for us. What a fun way to try out new patterns!
Looking good! You can open up a placemat business soon 🙂 I’m facinated by your large empty and clean table! Ours seems so full all the time 🙂
That orange is so striking! Beautiful work.
These turned out so well!! Matching to the dishware truly was brilliant. I will keep it in mind for future wedding gifts! I’d also love to know what pricing you decided on, if you don’t mind sharing.
I realllllly need to make some placemats. They have been on my “to-do soon” list for months. Maybe if I keep seeing yours, I’ll finally make them!! Thank you for the inspiration.
You’ve given me a lot of placemat inspiration over the last couple of weeks. I may even think about using some of my scraps and making some. These are lovely, and I like the pattern you used.
The placemats are beautiful! I have a hard time figuring out what I would charge if I were selling things I made. I’d love to give it a try, but I wonder if anyone would actually pay what I’d consider reasonable for my time. I think it’s a personal choice, and you have to be happy with your decision. That being said, I also think we as makers tend to undervalue our time and charge too little for the art we are making.
These are absolutely lovely! And I never would have guessed about that coffee fabric. Yay for finishing it off! Wow. That’s a really stunning color combination. Now I want new fancy placemats for my table! 🙂