Greetings from Tampa! :B In my 7 months of having this blog I’m finally doing my first automatic post. This weekend I’m in Tampa attending Metrocon, a huge anime convention that I’ve been frequenting for 10 years now! I’m selling all of my cutesy wares that have inhabited my Etsy store for some time. I’ll be back on Monday, so you might not see many comment or email responses from me until then. In addition, my store might change a bit depending on what I’ve sold at the convention. Anyway, onto the sewings!

I’m dating myself today! Are most of you out there old enough to remember floppy disks? :B I don’t know where I would be at this age if it weren’t for them. I remember in middle school my brother and I purchased about 3 dozen of these babies for just a few bucks from a store that was having a going out of business sale. Then we would take trips to the library and use the internet to fill up each disk with the tiniest of snippets of our favorite things XD .jpegs, .gifs, books (in .txt format of course), and .midis. We’d fill up all those disks during the hour that we had then bring them all home x3 It was kind of pathetic but it was all we had during those burgeoning internet years.

Anyhow, I was excited to use the floppy disk motif, but a square could be used so many ways x3 I could have made plushies or pouches I guess, but I thought coasters would be fun! And with all the cotton prints I’m trying to use up it gave me a chance to make the disks look like the brightly colored novelty disks my brother and I caught on sale sometimes. Though of course you all could go with the traditional black ^-^

Difficulty:

The hardest and major part of these is the appliqué, but if you can get past that you’re fine.
Makes one coaster that is 4¼” wide and 4¼” tall

Materials & Tools:
• ⅛ yd. or a fat quarter of light weight fabric for main coaster (broadcloth or linen would work – I used quilting cotton)
• 5” x 5” scrap of complementing felt for backing
• Matching sewing thread
• Basic sewing tools (sewing machine, scissors, iron, needles, pins, fabric marker, seam ripper)
Appliqué supplies:
• 4” x 4” scrap of white appliqué fabric (cotton or felt)
• 2” x 3” scrap of gray appliqué fabric (cotton or felt)
• 1” x 4” scrap of contrasting fabric for label (cotton or felt)
• 4” x 7” piece of light or heavy duty fusible web

Before you begin:
1. Print out the project pattern here
2. Lay out the pattern pieces on your fabric and cut them out
3. Mark the fabric pieces with the markings from the pattern

1. This is the bulk of the work to make your coaster: the appliqué. Apply your appliqué fabrics to your coaster front following the pattern guidelines. Iron them in place with light or heavy duty fusible web. I chose to sew them in place with a zigzag stitch. You’ll also want to do some straight stitches in contrasting thread along the stitch guidelines from the pattern to make the lines for your label.

2. With your appliqué complete, you can sew the remaining coaster piece on top with right sides together. Leave an opening in the side for turning the coaster right side out as the pattern indicates. Trim the seam allowances, turn the piece right side out, tuck the seam allowances back inside coaster, then press it flat.

3. All that’s left to do is add the backing! Layer your felt piece against the back of your coaster, and it should lay just inside the shape so felt doesn’t show much on the outside. Then edge stitch all the way around the coaster. This will affix your felt in place and also close up the opening on the side of your coaster at the same time.

I hope you don’t mind this quick voyage into geekdom >w< I just couldn’t help myself. Though if you did like it, prepare for more XD
So what do you think? Do you have any old-school technology that you are nostalgic about? Let me know in the comments!

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