DIY Crafts – Painted Coasters

I am so excited to share today a DIY craft to make these painted coasters. They are painted and free-stitched embroidery and I love how they came out. They are perfect for summer entertaining!

Today I have also teamed up with a group of sixteen other bloggers who are sharing their DIY Summer crafts. Be sure to scroll to the bottom of this post to see all of their wonderful ideas.

By now you have probably figured out that I am slightly obsessed with the technique called Free Stitch Embroidery. All of the projects using this technique on Pinterest involve embroidering over other fabrics. I instead decided to try painting the fabric in a loose way and then adding the embroidery for detail. 

I call this technique Painted and Free Stitched. It’s easy and fun and very liberating.

I have made pillows for Spring and Easter and now I have made some coasters for Summer. These were easy to make and I love how they turned out.

What You Need to Make Painted and Free Stitched Coasters

1/4 yard of cotton fabric (I used a dropcloth)

Acrylic Paint

A cardboard template measuring 5 1/2″ square

Embroidery Thread (I used Sulky Machine Embroidery thread)

Sewing machine 

How to Make Painted and Free Stitched Coasters

To make four coasters, trace eight of the templates on the cotton fabric. Trace them in two rows of four squares each.

Pick your design and color palette and select the points accordingly.

Mix your colors only using these few paint colors. Add more yellow for warm colors and a very small amount of white to lighten colors. The key is that you use no more than four colors to mix all of your main colors. I actually added some green for leaves.

Whatever design you choose, paint the coaster very loosely. Do not include any detail, just shapes.

Paint all four coasters. You can paint them the same, slightly different, or entirely different. It’s up to you. I painted mine slightly differently, with very little detail.

I used a dark brown embroidery thread and used free motion embroidery to stitch the detailing in my coasters. 

Watch this video to learn how to free stitch embroidery.

See how they are all a little different but similar? I love how these look with the embroidery.

Once you re done stitching, iron the painted cloth and then retrace the 5 12″ square. (The fabric will change slightly from the paint so it is important to get a perfect square.)

Next, cut out the coasters along the pencil-drawn line.

Cut out the fabric for the squares for the backside too.

With an iron, fold over all of the edges 3/8″. It doesn’t have to be exactly 3/8″. But you just have to fold over the exact amount on all of the fronts and backs of the coasters. I just eyeballed it but I have sewn all my life and this is very easy for me to do.

Pin the fronts and backs together making sure that the backside doesn’t show. Stitch all the way around the outside of each coaster. My seam allowance was 1/4″.

Don’t these look great?

To me, these are the perfect DIY Crafts for Summer.

Here are sixteen more DIY Crafts for summer!

Click on any of the links for all of the details.

How to Seed a New Lawn from Scratch at The Happy Housie
DIY Palm Leaf Shadow Art Box (PB Knockoff) at Craftberry Bush
How to Make an Outdoor Pallet Tabletop at My Sweet Savannah
DIY Outdoor Planter with Candle at Clean & Scentsible
DIY Hanging Patio Garden at Tatertots and Jello

DIY Outdoor Candle Holders at The Handmade Home
DIY Painted Coasters at My 100 Year Old Home
Outdoor Tabletop Herb Garden at Inspiration for Moms
DIY Modern Sun Art at Cassie Bustamante

DIY Shell Candles at Finding Silver Pennies
DIY Beaded Garden Markers at Zevy Joy
Easy DIY Macrame and Driftwood Wall Hanging at Dans Le Lake House
DIY Printed Fern Art at Satori Design for Living

DIY Criss Cross Outdoor Planters at She Gave it a Go
Coastal Coaster DIY at Rambling Renovators
Stamped Spoon Garden Markers at Life is a Party
Summer Porch Updates at Taryn Whiteaker Designs

Pin the images below to your Craft or Summer Decor boards on Pinterest (just click the Pin button in the top left corner). You can also follow along with me on Pinterest!

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