I have to admit that I rarely use place mats on my dining room table. I do, however, think they are absolutely adorable (on other people’s table) when they reflect a particular season or holiday. Last Christmas, I decided I would make some festive place mats for my loved ones and their children. I picked a fun design with ginger bread men on one side and a solid brown fabric for the reverse side. I chose brown with the hope that the place mats could be used in autumn and then flipped to reflect the Christmas season. FYI, the brown did match the Christmas fabric due to the brown in the ginger bread men. (I felt I needed to mention that since one does not typically think of brown as a Christmas color.) Because I consider myself a beginner sewer, I followed a pattern and the directions for a simple place mat provided by craftandfabricslinks.com . This site is a great place to find FREE patterns, sewing lessons, sewing project ideas, and links. Here is how my place mats turned out. The fabric was purchased at Joann Fabrics.