craftgrrl | Embroidered leaf coasters

In celebration of the autumn equinox I present:

Embroidered leaf coaster tute

Inspired by a high priced home catalog I have somehow gotten onto the mailing list for....

Using 3 layers of misc fabric scraps:

Top cotton layer in autumy/ leafy colors (which was far harder for me to find than I thought it would be)

Middle layer of a thin weight upholstery vinyl/ oil cloth/ sportswear nylon. Pretty much to keep any condensation from soaking through and nullifying the use of a coaster in the first place.

Bottom layer of a thickweight cotton. I used parts from some old pants I have since parted out.

Drew up a couple of paper leaf patterns based off leaves in nature. I made an oak, a maple leaf, and a plain old leaf-leaf. Checking of course first that they were the right size to offer adequate coverage for the glasses/ coffee mugs in my house.

I thoroughly ironed all the layers to make them flat, and also delinted them from being in my bits and bobbin bin.

~Layers pinned together flat and leaf template over top~

I then traced the outer edge with a white pencil and regular pencil
(This was the best combo for the lines showing up on both light and dark colors, especially after moving the fabric around on my machine)
Also adding on the leaf 'veins'

I also pinned in between all the lines I drew to keep the puckering to a minimum.

Then starting with the smaller veins first, I went over all my lines on a #2 zig zag, with the stitch length set at .5

Saving the outside for last so I could go over all the ends.

Removing pins as needed as I went round.

Afterwards I then carefully trimmed around the outer stitching making sure NOT to clip any of the stitching.

And voila:

and from the backside:

And the full set (progressing from left to right with my first to last leaves)

My favs were the plain leaf design, as the maple leaf was too much work for my tastes for the end product I got.

And there you have it.

Happy Fall!

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