Measuring and Cutting the Tablecloth

Beth Bates: Hi, I am Beth Bates with SewTeacher.com. Today, I am teaching you how to make a lined tablecloth. For example, this particular tablecloth we were making today is actually a table square and now in the first clip we have already determined that our measurements will be 54 inches x 54 inches and this is the finished product, it will be 54 inches x 54 inches.

The first thing we need to do is take our decorative fabric, go ahead and as you can see here I have folded it in half. These two are the edges right here. You want to line these two edges up nice and straight. You can do this on a table in your home or you can do this on the floor if you need to, if you don't have a table quite long enough. The important thing is that they are lined up nice and straight. Do not worry about lining up these two ends. In the fabric store the person that is working there probably does not have time to cut a nice straight line. Probably going to cut really quickly so most likely these will not be nice and straight, but that's okay because we are going to fix that.

So okay, we have got our edges lined up. Let's go ahead and take a square and the line should end up along your table edge or if you are doing this on the floor just on the two edges, take our pencil, draw a nice straight line and line it up with the line we have already drawn and continue that and this will give us a nice straight starting point to do our measurements.

Now our finished length and width is going to be 54x54. When I actually sew the lining and the fabric together we are going to lose a half an inch on each side in the seam. So be sure to add an extra inch to what you want your finished length and width to be.

So I am going to make my cut 55x55, okay just get rid of that. Here we have a nice squared that's called squaring the fabric. Edges are lined up. We got this nice and straight. I am going to use stick pins but you can use the pencil mark. Remember our cuts are going to be 55x55 to allow for the seam and I have found 55 right here. Mark it with your pin. Go down here again 55 and to the edge and mark it again 55, okay. Go back and get your straight edge and you are going to line all these pins up, draw your cutting line, okay.

Before you cut just double check and make sure it's the finished length which is 54+1, 55, 55, 55 and I strongly recommend that you check all your measurements as you go along because once you cut you are limited on what you can do after that. Okay, so let's take our pins out and cut it like this. Put up your scraps. Okay, so now we have the length 55. Now we need to do the width 55. Unfold your fabric and this time you are going to fold it this way with your newly squared off cut edges together. I am going to take and cut 55 this way.

Now before we do that let's talk a little bit about patterns. If you had a like a floral bouquet or a pronounce (ph) pattern or motif you need to make sure that's centered. So when you do your cuts if this particular one doesn't matter but if you did have one with the big floral bouquet and it was here in the center you want to be in the center of your table as well. So take that into consideration. Make sure you want everything to be symmetrical on either side.

Okay, so what you want to do in this particular case 55, it's actually going to put it right here on either end. So I will not need to do any cutting but you perhaps will at home. Now if your tablecloth, the finish width you want it to be greater than one then you need to join in another one. You never ever, ever want to seam just straight up in the middle of your table. You have to do the same process again and cut it straight up the center and add it to either side. Okay, then that way that one show you the main pattern or motif that's in the center and your seams will run up along the side. You don't want to seam right up in the middle. That would be -- that would not look very professional at all and we do want this look professional.

So if this is your very first you may want to choose a solid or a simple pattern like this but you did have a big plait or a big paisley or a big floral bouquet, make sure that it's in the center. If you need to add more on either side you simply repeat the process. Cut straight up the center and join it on either side, okay.

So now we have determined and have cut the first cut for our face fabric or our designer fabric, we need to do the same exact process with our lining. We are going to go ahead and fold it. Make sure the two ends that run down the length of the roll are together. Not preferably on our table edge but maybe on your floor we need to square it off like we did with this one, making sure there aren't any raw or raged cut, it's all nice and straight. We will measure 55 the same exact as our face fabric and then we will go ahead and make those cut and then we are on to the next step which is pinning and sewing the tablecloth.