A Tablecloth For The Patio Table

When I went to my nearest fabric store to buy buttons for the red vest, I found a fabric I could not resist…. (Do you know this feeling?)

It is a yellow and white Gingham with little flowers printed on them. I decided to make a new tablecloth for the table outside. The tricky part is, that this table has also an umbrella in the middle.

The year before I had bought a tablecloth for this table that closed with a zipper. I did not like how the zipper looked and after a few times of using it, it broke. So I decided to use buttons. Here is how I did it:

The fabric did not have enough width to cover the table completely, so I cut it in half planning on sewing those 2 strips together along two selvedges. This seam would run across the middle of the table. Here is a sketch:

First I folded both of the selvedges 3 cm ( 1 1/4 inch) to the wrong side and ironed them.

On the left fabric strip I used a pencil and marked the middle of the fold and drew a halfcircle 6cm ( 2 1/2 inch) in diameter with the middle as the center. This would be the hole for the umbrella.

 I aligned the left and right fabric strips so that the folds were on top of each other,overlapping completely, from one outer edge to the circle. I used Steam A Seam to prevent shifting of the fabrics. I sewed the two fabrics together with two seams: one along the edge and one 2.5 cm ( 1 inch) away from the edge. Then I cut out the circle.

I finished the edges of the circle with a store bought bias binding leaving short tails on both ends.

Tucking the tails ends under I sewed down the folds seperately from the circle to the southern edge along the edge and 2.5 cm ( 1 inch) away from the edge.

 I made buttonholes on the left side and sewed buttons on the right. I hemmed the edges by folding the edges twice about 0.75 cm (  1/4 inch) wide and stitched them down along the edge.  

And if we only had some warm sunshine, we could actually use it!