How to Make a LARGE Round Tablecloth

.
No, I am not an expert on making round tablecloths ... I just made my first one last night... but, I can warn you of the pitfalls of making one! :-).  I'm sorry that I have no pictures of the actual process (BAD BLOGGER!) because, quiet frankly,  I was way more interested in getting it right, and out of this house! (they needed it today so I had to take it to them last night).


Step 1:
YOU HAVE TO MEASURE THE TABLE!!!   If it is a tablecloth for you, YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE for knowing how big it needs to be!  
  - every time I talked to the girl that wanted me to make the tablecloth she would say she needed it to be 72"-73".  Well...1" difference IS IMPORTANT!  So I kept asking her if she had measured the table...no.  So finally, AFTER she had bought the fabric, and she was handing it to me, (I met her at a different fabric store) I asked again, exactly how big does it need to be?  At that point she called someone and asked them to measure!!  When she got off the phone she said she needed it to be 79" !!!  WAIT, that's not it yet. When we decided to put a cording around the bottom we went to someone to ask how much cording we would need. ... at that point she said these words... "the table is 49" across and 30" to the floor"  and all the ALARMS in my brain went off!!!  She didn't need 79" she needed 109" (before the hem) !!!!  She was including only enough to fall on one side, not both!  Guess what.... the SIX yards of fabric she bought was NOT ENOUGH to make the tablecloth go to the floor!  It is going to be 2" too short!

A +B(x2) +1" (1/2" hem)  = how many inches LONG your fabric needs to be

So, for the one I made it was 

49 + 30(x2) + 1" = 110"

3 yards of fabric = 108" !!!

Yes, that math you should have learned in school IS REQUIRED! 

BUT WAIT!!!  There's more!  Unless you are cutting a sheet, odds are, the fabric you find will not be WIDE enough, you will need to add fabric to add to the width.  I needed the other 3 yards she bought to make the piece wide enough.  (see step 2)

STEP 2:

Buy the correct amount of fabric.

Be sure to double (if that is enough)  the number you came up with in the above formula so that you can make it wide enough for a circle....

IMPORTANT: Avoid all use of words like "Diameter" and "Circumference"!!! Sadly, people don't know what they mean anymore!  What you THINK you are saying may not be what they are hearing.  Because she kept saying  "I need a 72"- 73" Diameter" instead of saying what she was actually measuring...because she was hearing 72-73" the lady at the fabric store told her that 6 yards would be plenty.  NOT!  We were TWO INCHES SHORT!

From here on I will be talking like 6 yards is what we are working with so the final table cloth will be 107" with a 1/2" hem.

Once you are certain all your numbers are correct add a few inches because these days they cut EXACTLY what you ask for!  They will cut their fingernails off  before they give you 1/4" more than you ask for!... and they NEVER CUT STRAIGHT!...so add a bit to your number.  Then, if you are like me and just the thought of having to deal with SIX YARDS of fabric turns your stomach, go ahead and let them cut it in half for you so, in my case I had two three yard pieces instead of one six yard piece.

STEP 3:

Make the fabric wide enough.

IMPORTANT: You want two seams on the sides, NOT one down the middle! so you will need to 

- split the LENGTH of one of the 3 yards pieces 

- sew one length to each side of the uncut piece thus making seams that will be on the side of the table, not one running down the middle.

STEP 4:

fold the newly created piece in half length wise

STEP 5:

Fold that in half  with  the original cut ends together forming a square (pretty much)

STEP 6:
Prepare for cutting:
- I had to move furniture for this step!  You will need a space big enough for the above square ... and for you to move all the way around it. (MY biggest obstacle!)  In my case I needed 54" for the fabric and ??? for my butt!  Like I said, I had to move furniture around to have enough floor space!


- Tie a pen (preferably disappearing ink) to one end of a string.  Make the string 1/2" the length of your finished tablecloth (mine was 54") and tack the loose end down to the floor (in my case) in the double folded corner:

- Draw a simi-circle from corner to corner. I didn't have disappearing ink so I put pins along the path...which really was good because it held the 4 thicknesses together for cutting.

STEP 7:

Cut the simi-circle.

Step 8:

Press seams open and hem.  It actually took me ONE HOUR to sew around the hem two times!

DONE!

OH!  and I forgot the most important part!!!  PRAY! throughout the entire process!

I wish I had a picture of the final product but I don't have a round table and without it, it was just a big pile of  A LOT of fabric!  

I got it to them at 9:45 PM last night.  YES!!!  Now I'm just hoping that it being 2" too short doesn't look awful.... (she said with a groan) 

Subject change....

Happy Birthday to me....happy birthday to me....happy birthday to me---eeeeee, happy birthday to me!

That's right, I will be spending the rest of my morning getting my car inspected and getting a new tag.  I would really like to talk to the person that thought making your birthday the final day for new tags was a good idea!!!!  Nothing like having to pay every year for your birthday (about $150 in my case)...another groan....


I'm off!  Have a great day!