Repurposed Burlap

Growing up in India, burlap was a familiar object to me. Everything from rice to coal came packaged in large burlap sacs. After the rice or coal was used up, my mother would use the sacs as dry mops. The habit of reusing burlap has stayed with me even after I moved to the US. The basmati rice I buy come packaged in burlap bags. For a while, I have been reusing these burlap rice bags to make journal covers like the ones shown here.

After I make these covers, I am often left with remnants. Not wanting to throw these remnants away, I thought I could re-purpose them into coasters. It turned out to very well and I liked them so much I made several. They are extremely easy to make and except for some precise measuring, they require minimum sewing skills.

For this project, I re-purposed burlap rice bags. You can also buy burlap from craft stores like Michael's. It is inexpensive especially if you use a coupon. To make the coasters sturdy, I layered the burlap with a thick interfacing like Pellon Peltex and felt. You can get Peltex from fabric stores like JoAnn's and the felt I used was an inexpensive one from Michael's.

What you need to do is to decide the size of your coaster. If you want a 4" square coaster, then you cut 4" square piece of burlap, interfacing and felt each. (In a square, each side is equal, here each side is 4".)

Stack the three pieces one above the other with each side perfectly aligned. Sew them together using a zigzag stitch. You are done! It is really that easy:)

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