Fall Leaves Coasters
Fall is my favorite season but that hasn’t always been the case. Growing up in California, we didn’t have much in the way of seasons, so I never understood the true glory of autumn until I moved to the East Coast. My first year in New York, I unwittingly took a weekend trip to Swarthmore, Pennsylvania right at the peak of fall foliage. I arrived at night and in the morning, woke up to a breathtaking riot of colors. As I wandered the town, I felt like I was in a kaleidoscope of yellows, oranges, red and pinks. I collected a bunch of my favorite leaves that day, thinking that they would keep their brilliant colors and was so sad when I realized they wouldn’t.
Because the beautiful foliage is, in fact, so fleeting, I wanted to make some pretty leaves that would last all year long. I made these Fall Leaves Coasters with our brand new Fall Leaves Felt Bundle, a neutral taupe complemented by four bright autumnal colors. Like my previous Felt Coaster projects (which you can see here and here) these are easy (and addictive!) to make. And with Thanksgiving around the bend, a set of Fall Leaves Coasters will surely make an elegant addition to your festivities!
Designed by Purl Soho designer, Molly Schnick. Click here to see even more of Molly’s work!
Materials
To make 8 total coasters (four of each version):
- A Fall Leaves Felt Bundle
- DMC in color 422 to match the tan in the felt bundle (you will be separating and using 2 strands to sew with it)
- A Fall Leaves Coasters template, available for free download here, printed and cut out.
Patterns
Version One
Cutting
Cut an outer leaf piece from the tan felt and a colored felt.
Using a pencil or an erasable fabric marker draw three straight lines radiating out from the bottom of the leaf, each starting from the same point, a 1/2-inch above the bottom middle curve. The middle line should be at 12:00 with the side lines at 10:00 and 2:00. Stop these lines an inch from the edge of the leaf.
1 1/2-inches from the end of each of your three lines draw two lines branching out.
Mark a curved line, following the curve of the bottom of the leaf, a 1/2-inch from the bottom of the leaf.
For a clearer picture of these markings please see below:
Make sure the markings are clear.
Using sharp scissors cut out away the markings. Do this carefully by just cutting around the marker lines.
The cut out lines should be no wider than 1/8-inch.
Sewing
Pin the leaf with the markings cut out to one of the colored leaves. Make sure the edges meet up nicely and that the colored felt is showing through the cut out sections of the top leaf.
Using a very small running stitch and two strands of embroidery floss sew the two leaves together along the edge of the cut out section of the top leaf.
Then sew them together along their outer edges.
Snip around the edges so none of the colored felt is poking out along the edges.
You’re all done!
Version Two
Cutting
Cut out an outer leaf piece from the colored felt.
Cut out an inner leaf piece from the tan felt.
Sewing
Pin the two pieces together, with the tan piece centered on top.
Using a very small running stitch and 2 strands of embroidery thread sew around the perimeter of the inner leaf.
You’re all done!
Update 2024: You can explore our current collection of beautiful fabrics and supplies on our page of Sewing Tools + Notions!
I would love to make these beautiful coasters but I don't see the downloadable template. Can you include in your post please?? Thank you!
I didn’t see the template?
Hi Robin-
The template is linked under the “Materials” section of this pattern or you can find it by going here: https://www.purlsoho.com/create/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/leaf_coaster_template.pdf
Thank you for getting in touch!
Molly
Hi Vanessa,
The link for the template is now live, thanks for letting us know! You can find it above in the materials section.
Happy Fall!
so cute! Thanks for sharing.
Beautiful!
Thanks for sharing the step by step.
Sonia
Really lovely leaves and wonderful tutorial ~ thanks so much for sharing.
So cute! I just love all of your coasters!
So beautiful!!
Thank you for tutorial
Regards from Spain
Perhaps this is obvious, but is the running stitch done manually or by sewing machine? (I'm still a novice in learning about all the sewing crafts.) Thank you!
Hi Grace-
The running stitch is done by hand.
Thanks for your question!- Molly
That's a great project to do with my five year old. Thanks!
beautiful I just love it so much!!
thank you for giving me inspiration.
These are such a great idea and could really be done in any shape for any season! Thanks for posting!
These fall coasters are wonderful. I can picture them in all the fall colors and while I'm not a seamstress, I am going to try and make them for gifts. Thank you so much for sharing this wonderful idea.
these are so cute. Do you happen to have Christmas ones?
Hi I can can’t seem to download the directions for the Fall Leaves Coasters. Do I have to pay for them?
Hi Tracy-
This pattern isn’t available to download but all of the instructions are listed here. Unfortunately our new site doesn’t have an easy print button but if you’d like to save this pattern as a PDF to print or just read from you are welcome to copy and paste it into a Word or Text doc and save it from there.
I’m sorry this is a bit of a hassle. All of our new patterns going forward will have downloadable PDFs and we are also working on getting our older patterns saved in this way but it’s slow going!
Thanks!
Molly
WOW brilliant idea! I am thinking of enlarging and turn into placemats as well! Thanks again for your wonderful ideas and time!