Turn a Placemat into a Bag

Over this Hari Raya holiday, I got an order request to create a 16-page scrapbook and a suitable packaging was necessary. In my unsuccessful attempt of finding a suitable box for it, I walked around Daiso and found a really beautiful placemat which brown polka dots, which was a similar pattern as the scrapbook and turned it into a bag for it.

Here’s a simple way that you may be able to do the next time you have trouble finding a packaging for your gift 🙂 

Snip off 1 cm off the top of the placemat to remove the stitches. This saves the hassle of unpicking the stitches. Now you see how this can be a bag! That bit that you just cut off will be the top of your soon-to-be bag

Most placemats are a one-piece, but I manage to find a cotton placemat that happened to be 2 pieces of fabric sewed together. (one side plain and the other with polka dots).

One quick fix instead of taking out the sewing machine is to use double-sided tape to secure it down.
Put a strip of double-sided tape and fold it down. Repeat that step so that you will have a clean finishing with no thread fraying.

This is how the bag should look from the inside (front & back).

Create a little tag with your message on it. I used a ‘Best Wishes’ rubber stamp with some silver ink, cut out a circle and distress the sides with some black ink.

Now use a ribbon/ yarn to gather the fabric together and voila… you are done – pic below 🙂

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We purchased our home in 2019. Without an ID hire, we sourced our contractors, materials and did our own DIY home projects...

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