Turn a Placemat into a Purse

I always carry gum on me for a few good reasons.

1. I’m terrified of having funky breath. It seems the times I don’t have gum in my purse I meet somebody with personal space issues (as in they don’t understand it) and I wind up holding my mouth tightly closed while trying to still be genial.
2. It’s nice to offer other people a piece of gum when things are awkward or as an introduction. You know, Give Extra, Get Extra :)
3. My ears always need to pop and chewing gum helps!
4. If I don’t have gum it seems I constantly get asked for gum and being me I have to give an overly long apology and explanation of how I usually have gum and it gets really awkward really quickly.
5. Bubble blowing contests are the bomb. I will own you.

But one of the the things I have always hated about carrying around stick gum is how much inevitably ends up crumbled up in the bottom of my purse, all sticky and weird, while I have tons of little foil papers scattered throughout my stuff.

So with my love of gum and the desire to keep the bottom of my purse not gunky I got pretty excited when I found the new Extra® 35-stick pack that has more gum than most packs.  These sticks are in this awesome little plastic clam-shell type of thing that gum won’t just slip out of. Woot! Oh, and just in case being environmentally friendly is your thing, and honestly it should be everybody’s thing, the packaging is recyclable! Woot, woot!

Since I was at Target buying up paint brushes, because they seriously have some of my fave craft brushes right now, I also snapped up some of these awesome new 35-stick packs in Extra® Gum Spearmint and Extra® Gum Polar Ice® flavors. And while I was standing in line I looked down at my purse and decided it was time for something new. But when I looked at actual purses I remembered, “you’re on a budget chickadee and a new purse just ain’t in it”. So I instead ran to the home decor area remembering my fab idea to turn a fall placemat into a purse found something pretty and spring-like. Have you ever looked at the Target placements? Like, seriously? Because they are CUTE. In the end I chose this design because I thought that it would go with more of my wardrobe than any of the others but I have to tell you, it was a good 20 minutes in that aisle trying to decide!

But let’s get on with turning a placemat into a purse, shall we?

For this project you will need:

• placemat
• matching thread
• 1 yard of matching webbing
• Aleene’s Fabric Fusion Tape

Just in case you can hardly believe it, see… totally a placemat :)

You can find webbing at fabric stores or craft stores with a good fabric department. I found this in the “upholstery findings” type of area with tassels and pom pom fringe you use on things like pillows.

Just so you know how this is going to go, and it’s super simple, you’ll take 1 yard of webbing and place it inside of placemat folded in half like you see above.

I have issues with pins, as in, I don’t like using them. So instead I like to use Fabric Fusion Tape that is basically double sided tape for fabrics. You can do this and attach to your placemat so that it holds steady to sew, or you can use traditional pins. I like this because it also helps to prevent the webbing from fraying a bit.

Place your webbing inside of the fold on what will be the inside FRONT of the purse when finished.

Use a disappearing ink pen for fabric to mark a box on top of the webbing. You can draw an “X” for extra support but since I life far away from my nephews and don’t always have a Spiderman and other kid essentials in my purse I decided I didn’t need to do that!

Using a machine, or hand stitching, sew the webbing into place. Place the other piece on what will be the inside back of the purse, just inside where the fabric pieces meet up in the fold. Tape or pin the webbing down and then stitch into place. To remove the disappearing ink, take a wet rag and gently blot at the marks. Once the water dries it the ink should be gone.

With the mat folded in half, and your webbing attached sew the placemat shut as seen above.

Boom! Look at that purse? Isn’t it so fab? Would you have guessed it was supposed to be hanging out on a dining room table at first glance?

Rob and I went to check out the local park (which is beautiful, by the by) and we got some fab pictures of my new bag AND I shared my gum with him, largely because I wanted to see which of us could make the loudest cracking sound with our Extra® Gum Spearmint. And wouldn’t you know it I won? Largely because I didn’t tell him we were competing but he knows enough about me and my family (ahem, my sister mostly) that there is always some sort of a silent challenge going on we’re winning but won’t tell you about until you’ve lost. “Ha! We beat you here! You didn’t know we were racing but we still WON and you’re still the loser!” :)

So the next time you cruise through Target snap you up a super cute placemat and then hit up the new Extra® 35-stick packs at the checkouts to put in your new DIY purse and you’ll be cute and have more gum so you can Give Extra, Get Extra! And, since Target is the bomb, be sure to check out how to save $$ with the Cartwheel app!