Help me make a Christmas tablecloth

widdershins — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 11:29:46 -0800

I have been taken over by an urge to embroider a Xmas tablecloth. Trouble is, I know nothing about embroidery or cross-stitching and I need a little (a lot of) help getting started, if you would be so kind. I'm not very crafty, though I like to knit (I'm not very fast or that good at it, but I do enjoy it). Lately I keep thinking I'd really like to embroider or cross-stitch a tablecloth for Xmas (aiming to complete for next year's Xmas).

I've done some googling and it looks like maybe embroidery kits like this or this are what I'm looking for. Would you agree that these are the best way for a novice? Or would cross-stitching be easier to start with? I'm not averse to cross-stitching, I just haven't found a pattern that I liked.

If so, what supplies do I need to get? The kits say that the tablecloths are stamped with the pattern, so I'm assuming I only need the right needles and thread? Err... what are the right needles and thread? I'll probably be ordering the supplies online because I can't find any craft stores near me (I'm in southern CT) that carry embroidery kits (but maybe I'm not using the right terms in my search?).

Also, how long do you think such a project would take? Assuming I'm a complete novice and can only devote an average of 1-2 hours once or twice a week, could I reasonably complete it by next Xmas?

Lastly, I prefer the first design (the baubles) but I can't find the kit anywhere - all the hits lead to sold-out links or to the placemats. If there's something I'm missing and you can find it easily, please share your secret. I'm looking for a 60 x 90 or 60 x 104.

Thank you so much for taking pity on me and helping me unleash my inner craftiness!

How can I preserve and display a tablecloth?

FortyT-wo — Mon, 03 Sep 2007 06:49:20 -0800

For at least 25 years, my grandmother had a table cloth which every person who visited her house signed, and their signature was embroidered onto the cloth. Now my family is looking for a way to preserve and display it. Any cool ideas? The table cloth is kind of thin now, from years of washing. It's covered with, I'd estimate, at least 100 signatures, backstiched into the cloth. My grandparents are still living, but going to have to move into a retirement community, and I'm not sure grandma's capable of sewing anymore, so the tablecloth won't be added to in the future.

The main goals here are a.) to preserve it, and b.) to make it displayable. It's approx 102 inches long, (her table was long, rectangular, and sat 8-10) though the sides that hang down the table were sewed on, and there are no signatures on it, so those could be removed. The signature area is no larger than the top of her table.

Someone came up with the idea of cutting the cloth into squares and somehow pasting it into the pages of a scrapbook type thing, but the names were signed randomly, and I don't think we could cut it without cutting through names.

There was also the idea of somehow forming it into some sort of a throw or quilt, but we're not sure how to do this best (the cloth is too thin now to just throw some batting in and a backing cloth and sew it together). Also, there are holes in the cloth where there have been cigarette burns. My grandma would embroider around the edge of the hole (often in the same color thread that whoever dropped their cigarette had their name embroidered in!), so they're stable, and smaller than a dime, but still, any batting or whatever might come through.

Didn't know if the hive mind could come up with any additional ideas for displaying this? Any companies out there who might handle this sort of thing?

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Help me make a Christmas tablecloth

How can I preserve and display a tablecloth?