Interlocking Felt Coasters

Coasters are not something every household has. Most people either use whatever is already on the table (like a book or a cable bill), have plastic/granite/linoleum tables, or they choose to accept the water rings that will ultimately be on their wood table. Coasters can also be ridiculously expensive... I mean, these coasters from Crate and Barrel will set you back $20! So when I found this post on HowAboutOrange on how you can make your own felt coasters AND have them look cool, I tested them out to see just how easy they were to make. Anything that looks like that must take hours, right? Wrong. They're quick, they're easy, and would make great housewarming gifts, stocking stuffers, even a graduation gift for your college-bound kid (can you imagine the kid placing their cheap PBR on a coaster? Ok, maybe not...)

Start by downloading this template (which will make two coasters) and gathering your felt, scissors, and an x-acto knife.

Next, cut out the perimeter of the template, place the template on top of the felt, and pin it down. Every place you see a diagonal line, cut it out with your x-acto knife.

Once you're all done, cut out the 8 individual rectangles, remove the pins, and remove the paper. The left column is one coaster, the right column is another.

Next, take four pieces and interlace them like what you see below. You'll want the four pieces overlapping each other with four little triangles "chasing" each other, kind of like a pinwheel. At this point, make sure all the slits that are in the center of the square are cut all the way through to the edge. This will help you down the road, I promise!

Now here's where it can get a little tricky. You see those four little triangles? Well, you're going to want to pull them ALL the way through the opening. If your original slit isn't big enough for you to pull the triangle through, you can always cut the opening a little bigger but be careful!

Here's what it should look like once all four triangles are pulled all the way through.

And here's what the back will look like (the side that will lay against the table).

Take your scissors and cut two triangles on the front side in the middle of each side. Trim the sides so that your square is even.

And there you have it folks! Your very own unique, simple, yet functional (and inexpensive!) felt coasters!

TOTAL COSTS: $.33
$.33/color of felt at Michael's (the stiffer the felt, the better!)
Scissors & x-acto knife already on hand

TOTAL AMOUNT OF TIME: 25 minutes/2 coasters

EASY-PEASY SCALE (1 super easy - 5 very difficult): 2 out of 5
It look me a while to figure out that the tiny triangles have to be pulled all the way through the slits but once I figured it out, it was a piece of cake!