Place setting tablecloth...a tutorial

With the renovations of our house still underway by my handy husband, Eben and I are boarding at my sister's house.  Thankfully, she has a wonderful sewing machine and fabric galore to tide me over in my crafting withdrawal.  Thinking about my own house and all of the things left to do with it, I am already looking forward to our first family dinner to christen it.  With Laura and my birthday last month, and our Mom and my father in law's birthday this month.....we have a ton to celebrate. 

As Eben grows, the more he likes to help Fran and I around the house.  To feel like a big kid.  For Christmas he helped me to set the table and asked me where things went...forks, knives, plates, etc.  He was so proud of it when he was done. 

With this in mind I decided to make a new tablecloth to go with our renovated dining room.  In a complementary color to the new walls.   Complete with patched-on place settings.

***************TUTORIAL***************

I got a set of beautiful vintage sheets at the Thrift store a while back.  I had used one of the pillowcases when I re-did my desk and I decided that the fitted sheet would work really nicely for the table cloth.

First, I collected all four corners together and tucked them into one.

Like this.

 Making sure that all four elastic lined up.

Then I trimmed off all four layers of elastic gathering at once using a rotary cutter.

Once the elastic was gone, the sheet was able to lay flatter without puckering.  To flatten it even more, I made a cut through all four layers of the sheet on both sides of the corner pocket seam.  Then, with the sheet perfectly flat, I cut off the corner pocket seam as shown in the picture.  (Remember, you are cutting through all four layers.)

This left me with a 90 degree angle where the corner seam was.  Following one of the cuts that I had just made, I continued to cut the rest of the length of that side.

I then trimmed a few inches of excess roughness from the other side of the rectangle (not as much as the other side that I just cut, just a few inches or so, as shown.)

The sheet then looked like this.  The rough edges are the sides that I cut with the past two steps.

After opening up the sheet fully, I folded and pinned all four edges using a doubled over 1inch fold.

I squared off the corners while I was folding.

I used a zig-zag stitch to secure the seam and to add a bit of detail.  Then I removed the pins and steamed the seams.

To add to the independence of setting the table, I decided to add appliqued circles at each place setting to mimic the plates for the table.  That way Eben would know where each plate should go, as well as where to put the utensils.

I made these by cutting out a paper circle by tracing a plate.

I used the template to cut out 4 paisley flannel circles left over from a pair of pajamas (that I had made some baby pants for the store with), and 2 cotton bird printed circles.  I then cut out six heat and bond circles to adhere the fabric to the sheet with.

Using a hot iron, I steam secured the circles into place where I wanted them on the sheet.

As a final step in security and an added bit of detail, I zig-zag stitched around each of the 6 circles.

Ensuring that they will withstand a lot of wash and wear.

( It is a table cloth after all!)

And with it's completion I am giving my boy just one more tool to help in his mission of growing up.