Those sound very cute!
I'm planning to make some red placemats with machine embroidered poinsettias on them. A friend asked about using plain red fabric and whether it would get stained. With that in mind, I actually ordered a large table cloth to use for the placemats. It has a stain guard to help with that potential problem. Also, the table cloth fabric is polyester, so it shouldn't require as much ironing after being washed. Just thought I would share those ideas in case it's helpful.
Will look forward to seeing your placemats. I have no experience with kraft-tex.