How To Make Football Season DIY Placemats
- Brother Sews Blogger
Football season is in full swing and whether you like to tailgate, pre-game, or throw your own game day party at home, it’s always fun to show your spirit with football-themed decor. Score big with your fans by making these football placemats in time for the next game. It’s a simple design and all it takes is a few easy stitches, so open-up the playbook and let’s make these DIY placemats!
Supplies:
- Brother ScanNCut SDX330D
- Rotary auto blade
- Fabric mat
- Brother sewing & embroidery machine
- Brown upholstery fabric
- White medium weight woven fabric
- Pattern paper and a pencil
- Medium weight adhesive stabilizer
- Pattern paper and pencil
- Plain white paper
- Scissors
- Measuring tape
- Straight pins
How to:
Sketch out half the shape of a football; make it as large or small as you want for your table setting. Only draw half of the football shape because the center will be put on the fold of the fabric to cut. Using the sturdy upholstery fabric works for this because you are only using one layer of fabric to create the base of your placemat. Once you cut the football pattern out of the fabric, the only thing left to do is add the embellishments.
Once the pattern piece is cut from the paper, pin it on the fold of your brown fabric and cut as many placemats as you need for the table.
Let’s start by making one.
The football placemats need laces and lines just like a real football. Draw the laces and lines appropriate for a football on a piece of plain paper.
Scan the drawing into your ScanNCut and save the file.
Cut the white fabric to fit the fabric mat and add iron on adhesive to the backside of the white fabric (this is optional). Lay the fabric on the fabric mat.
Insert it into the ScanNCut and the machine will cut the appliqué pieces.
Carefully peel them off the mat and lay the appliqué pieces on the football shaped brown fabric.
Iron them into place or use fabric glue instead to set the appliqué pieces in place.
There are two options to apply the applique pieces to the football mats.
One suggestion to finish the football applique placemats is to simply stitch the appliqué pieces in place using your sewing machine and a basic stitch or decorative topstitch, whichever you prefer.
Since we are only using one layer of fabric for the base of the placemat, be sure to use a dark color bobbin and white top thread.
The second option to finish the applique lines and laces on the football placemat is to create an applique design and finish it with an embroidered satin stitch.
To do this, transfer the ScanNCut file to the Brother Canvas Workspace and save the FCM file on your computer.
Next, upload the file into the Brother PE Design 11 software already installed on your computer to digitize the design and create a PES file. Upload the pes file on your embroidery machine.
Hoop the football base using medium weight adhesive stabilizer, load on the machine and scan it in. Now you have a visual of the placemat on your machine.

Line up the appliqué embroidery design that is already uploaded into your machine over the outline of the scanned image. Make sure it is lined up for a perfect fit.
Press the green button and the embroidery machine will topstitch the lines and laces into place.
Decide which process works best for you and finish all the game day placemats. You can use these for individual settings or place them on a buffet table to add to all the gameday trimmings.
When you create these football themed placemats for your next tailgate, and you most definitely be the MVP of the party!