Ruffled Round Burlap Tablecloth Tutorial

I fell in love with these the minute I saw them in a catalogue,

but let's admit it, a 30 inch table isn't going to fit anyone and

I am not going to spend $200 for that, so making my own has been in the

back of my head for several years now.  

I knew it was going to

be a big job because of all of the fabric it was going to take

and I knew it was going to be time consuming, but the other

day the fabric practically jumped into my cart at Wal Mart.

 I got it on sale so 8 yards was under $30 and the bag went

into the "To Do" pile.

 Monday morning I got up and decided I wanted to 

give this long awaited project a try and Voila!! It is done!

I love to time projects - I think it came from the old black and white

version of Cheaper By The Dozen where the dad was always the

efficiency expert and watching that as a youth, I learned to love

to time things.  Now I tend to do things on the fast side so I am

going to tell you that I had this done in 7 1/2 hours total

(yes my back hurt after sewing that many hours!) so it may

take you longer but I am thinking of making a matching

one for my other outdoor table since they sit side by

side.  I do think it would take less with a white cotton fabric

(I want to make one in white too!) because the burlap is

heavy and bulky.  One other disclaimer - I didn't have to

cut out my ruffles, I had a 100 foot roll of burlap runner,

that I had bought for our church

Christmas In Nauvoo dinner

and which our daughter had also reused for runners at 

Girl's Camp also.  Itt happened to match the

burlap I bought perfectly, so that would take additional

time if you had to cut the ruffles out.  I did serge one side

and hem the other so I didn't get to skip those steps.  So

I had already purchased that over a year ago and just reused

the long runners.  I used about half of the 4 yards of burlap

and under 30 yards of runner so you could buy the 50 yard

roll and use a little over half of it and the cost would be

under $50 for this cloth to fit a 48 inch table.

(The link is to a 50 yard roll of the 14 inch wide runner

that is fringed and sewn.  I couldn't find the 100 yard

roll.  You could also use 3 10 yard rolls of the 12 inch too.

It certainly saved time and sanity.)

Start by measuring your diameter of your table.  I

have two indoor rounds and two outdoor rounds and

each of them were different sizes - alas!  Add 1 1/2

inches to that for your seam allowances as the seam gets

pretty bulky with the heavy burlap.

So I was cutting a square of 49.5 inch fabric.

Fold that square into half twice and taking a yard stick

or a large quilting ruler, place the top of the ruler at

the point and mark half of your diameter as you go around

every few inches

so that when you cut you will have a 49.5 inch diameter circle.  This is

a kind of follow the dots exercise to get a round circle.

Keep your phone's calculator handy as you are going to

be using it all the time from now on. (Or any calculator, or

use paper and pencil!  It all works.)

To calculate the circumference multiply your diameter

by 3.14 so 

49.5 X 3.14 = 155.43 inches

Then divide that by 36 inches

= 4.3 yards

Then you will want to multiply that times 2 to get the fullness

= 8.6 yards for my first ruffle.

After cutting the length for the ruffle, since I was using a 14 inch wide

runner, I needed to 

trim the runner down to  11 inches, considering half an

inch for the seam and half an inch for a hem.  Most tables have 

a 30 inch drop to the floor so you want your ruffles to end up being

about 30 inches.  It can hang a little above or puddle a little

too so don't worry too much.

Then I serged the top edge and

turned over the bottom edge to hem it.  

Next, seam the two ends together, being careful to make

sure that right sides are together and serge or finish the seam to 

prevent raveling.  

Now run a gathering stitch around the top of the 

ruffle.  I like to break something like this into quarters

so when you pull your gathering threads you don't have 

as far to go.  Keep those pins in place or remark

your quarters.  I used one color for half way and

another color of pin for the quarter mark so I knew

where I was.  Later I added a third color for marking

into eighths as the second and third ruffles get bigger.

Fold the top round into quarters and mark the

quarters with coordinating colored pins. 

Attach the first ruffle to the top of the tablecloth.

NOW IS THE TIME TO PUT THE CLOTH ON

YOUR TABLE TO MAKE SURE THAT IT FITS

PROPERLY.  YOU WILL DO THIS AGAIN 

LATER BUT YOU WOULDN'T WANT TO DO 

ALL OF THIS WORK AND NOT HAVE IT FIT.

(Shown with the straight underskirt attached to top and ruffle)

Now you are going to add the straight underskirt

that the other two ruffles are going to be attached to.

Take your circumference

which mine was 4.3 yards and add 12-18

inches to this.  You will want to be able to

have some room for the cloth to fit over the 

table.  Cut a piece that is that long and 30 inches

wide. 

Before you sew this end to end, use a felt tip

marker and mark 11 inches up from the bottom

edge.  I used the finished selvedge seam so I

didn't hem it.  Then mark another 11 inches above

this line all the way down the length of the fabric

so you know where to place the two remaining ruffles.

I laid my underskirt down the hallway to do this.

Serge or finish the top edge.  Sew a hem if desired.

 Sew the back seam and finish the edge.

Again, marking both the table top and this new

underskirt piece into 4ths with pins, line up

seams and begin pinning from there.  

The right side of the underskirt will

be facing the right side of the ruffle

so the ruffle is sandwiched between the table top 

and the underskirt.

To gather up the extra fulness in this underskirt,

just create a pin tuck or two on each quarter.  No

one is going to see this and you need room to

get the skirt over the table.

Attach this underskirt to the table top.

NOW IS THE TIME AGAIN TO PLACE IT

ON YOUR TABLE.  YOU NEED TO BE SURE

IT GOES OVER THE TABLE.

Now it is time for ruffles number 2 and 3 -

the thing is growing!!!

This ruffle measurement is going to be bigger

because you added the extra 12-18 inches

onto the underskirt so use your calculator again

and multiply the length of your underskirt by

2 to get the proper fullness for the ruffle.  

My first ruffle was a little over 8 yards and my

second and third were 9.5 yards.  Fortunately

the runners we had used on the Christmas party

table were that long as we had placed 3 tables 

end to end so I had plenty of length using the

runners we had already cut.

The second and third ruffles are going to be

cut 1 inch wider as you want them to tuck up

under the first ruffle so I cut mine 12 inches wide.

Again seam, hem and finish the top edges of the two 

remaining ruffles.

I cheated on the second and third ruffles and

just marked the underskirt and the ruffles into

eighths and hand tucked the ruffles - so I skipped

using the gathering stitch on the machine.  I don't

know if that saved me time or not, but the hand

tucking of the ruffles as I went seems to look as

even as the first ruffle.  You are going to want to

sew that on the lines you have made with the

marker, starting with the second ruffle and

finishing with the bottom ruffle.

(You can see I don't have the gathering stitch, I

just hand gathered it and held it in place as I sewed

on these two bottom ruffles.)

Here is when it gets really bulky, but just

have plenty of counter or table space for

the tablecloth.  

Again, the counting thing - my efficiency expert

part of my personality - but I was counting how

many remaining eighths I had as I went along.

Before I knew it, I was done!  It fit!

AND I WAS THRILLED.

(Give the seams a nice pressing as you go along.)

Next time (if there is a next time, but that matching

though slightly larger table is lonely without one,) 

I probably won't try to do it all in one sitting.

I have to admit - BURLAP SMELLS!

I thought I was working in a barn all day

and growing up in Wisconsin and having

dairy farmers as relatives, it was a pretty

familiar small!  I think with the smell, I probably

am going to keep this as an outside cloth.

Dirt Road Dakota Girl says to spray it with

vinegar and let it dry to get the smell out. 

I haven't tried that yet but I think I will.

If you are making a tablecloth that is wider than

your fabric is, you will need to add strips along both

sides to create the diameter you need for the table topper section.

 Let's say you

have a 60 inch wide table, you will want to

add a strip to each side of the table topper to create 

61.5 inches.  Those would be pretty little strips, so

you might want to make them 4 - 6 inch strips on each

 side and cut your center panel down accordingly to reach 61.5.

I hope I haven't scared you off.  It was very 

inexpensive

and I am in love so it was worth the time spent!

And yes, I can see myself sewing more of them -

oh the colors, the fabrics!!

I actually made the tablecloth first and then

decided to do the chair sashes and

while setting this table realized I had better

try making the napkin rings!  One thing just

lead to another!

I haven't been this crafty in years!  At least not

all in one week!

I will be posting this with 

Metamorphosis Monday

Feathered Nest Friday

Home Sweet Home

Tater Tots and Jello