Last year, or maybe in 2023, I found this lovely tablecloth at a thrift store. It's a large oval made of a nice heavy damask fabric. I bought it to convert it into a round tablecloth that would fit our dining room table.
Then the math happened. I know I've mentioned it before, but sometimes getting the measurements correct gets away from me. It's a bit of a problem for a crafter. Last October I finally bit the bullet and cut the oval down to a circle. It worked. Whew!
I wanted to see if I could finally learn how to do a rolled hem using the specialty foot on my sewing machine. The idea is that you carefully wind the edge of the fabric into the spiral of the foot. As it comes out the other end, the fabric edge is folded over twice and is perfectly lined up with the needle to get a very narrow rolled hem.
I did some practice runs using the remnants of tablecloth fabric, but I couldn't get it to stitch consistently. I'm pretty sure it's because of the fabric's hefty weight. So I'll save learning that technique for another time. Realizing that my original idea wasn't going to work, it took me two more months to come up with my next plan.
What I wanted most was to have the tablecloth's rounded edge nice and flat, with no ripples. A fabric circle is both on grain and on the bias. Part of the edge is nice and firm (on grain) and part is stretchy (bias). That's been my ongoing problem trying to sew with fabrics cut on a bias. The hem gets all wobbly due to the extra stretch.
So I started with a staystitch 1/4" around the edge of the tablecloth. I pressed it well on that basting line. Then I folded and pressed, folded and pressed, being very careful not to stretch the edge. I gave it a lot of steam. Then I pinned it in place keeping the pins very close to each other. I didn't want anything to move.
I set the speed of my machine to "slow" and really took my time as I sewed.
I used my clear zipper foot with the needle set to the left position so that I could sew very close to the top edge of the hem. I also got out the seam guide attachment. The guide attaches with a screw to the machine and you can adjust it left and right. It helped me keep the folded edge of the tablecloth exactly where I needed it so that the stitching remained even at the top of the hem.
Those techniques made all the difference. The hem came out beautifully! And look! I got the math right! That's the ideal amount of fall off the edge of the table.
This is going to look wonderful when I want to be fancy.
I think the damask is beautiful with my delicate china pattern and cut glass goblets and serving dishes.
What do you think? Shall I use it on Valentine's Day for a quiet dinner with my sweetheart?
p.s. I inherited the china plates and teacups from my mom. But the matching teapot, sugar bowl, creamer and quite a number of other serving dishes were purchased for an incredibly low price at ... a thrift store! I'm still on the lookout for inexpensive matching salt and pepper shakers and the lipped plate for the butter dish.
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