Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Placemat paintbrush roll-up holder

I was super honored to be asked to contribute to Martha Stewart's crafts blog. What exactly do you choose for Martha? It was a toughie I'll tell you what. I've been in need of a paintbrush holder because transporting my delicate brushes around town has been getting me nervous without proper protection. I thought of using a sushi roller mat, but then found these placemats at Jysk and thought, "bingo". I added some monochromatic colored fabric and voila, paintbrush holder here you are. Now, I went a little crazy so I made three (anyone want one?) in these awesome colors AND I went crazy with the GIFs, but really, could you blame me? They're so photogenic! 
Materials: bamboo placemat (min is 18 x 12"), fabric in coordinating color, thread, scissors, sewing machine, ruler, 12' ribbon or elastic
Click here to read the full instructions 
Step 1: cut a piece of fabric about 2" wider than the width of the place-mat and at least 3" more than the height.
Step 2: Fold the fabric overs so that the top piece is about 1 1/2" taller than the bottom piece.
Step 3: Fold the taller piece about 1/4" over, press, and sew straight across.
Step 4: Fold the shorter piece 1/4" over and press.
Step 5: Fold both sides over together 1/4" and press and sew together.
Step 6: Measure and mark at 1 1/2" across the whole length. This will be where your dividing lines will go. I also measured the top.
Step 7: Sew down these lines and stop when you get to the shorter piece of fabric.
Step 8: Place the fabric piece on top of the place-mat and align it at the bottoms.

Step 9: Change the width of your stitch to a width where the needle can cross the bamboo safely. For mine this was 4.5.
Step 10: Sew a straight line across the top and the bottom.
Step 11: Insert a thick ribbon into the edge of the bamboo to use as an enclosure.

Voila! Super easy and helpful in protecting your goods as you go about town. I made one for my brushes, colored pencils, and silverware for picnics. Happy travels!



 Photography by Amanda Thomsen and me

4 comments:

sarahgringa said...

This project of yours will definitely hold its' own against Martha's. I've been looking for a simple and bright paintbrush holder too! Thanks for the instructions.

Lost In Cheeseland said...

Brilliant, Britney!! What a great opportunity too !

kimi @ www.californiapixie.com said...

This is my favorite thing you've done. I'm doing it! ONLY...for my chefs knive, cheese knive, scissors, whatever I transport thats sharp and usually gets wrapped in newspaper. Done!!! GREAT pix, too!!! The blacka nd white stripes behind the bright reed mats? Niiiiice! k.

Miss B. said...

ye haw! do it!