How to finish the edge of a round table cloth
Do not try to put a square peg in a round box, take the path of least resistance. Don't just seam, finish it beautifully.
Round tables are beautiful until you need to cover them with the right tablecloth. The ready made ones are seldom the right one and finding material that is wide enough to make your own, is a mission on its own.
140 cm Diameter table
Let's assume your table is 140 cm in diameter and you are prepared to accept a 4 cm drop around the table's edge. You have a heavy weight material like bull denim or curtaining or a light upholstery in the design you love. It is very difficult to insert a neatly folded seam on any material, and on heavy-weights it is impossible. Therefor I am going to show you how to finish the edge with binding and piping. It is very easy to do and the end result is ten times more practical and looks good.
How to cut a round tablecloth
Pre-wash your material, iron and ensure that the ends are square to the self edge before cutting your circle.
The width of your material will determine the diameter of your round tablecloth.
Requirements
Same length of material (+ 25 cm extra to ensure that you will be able to square the material before cutting) as the width of the material, without the self-edge.
5.5 m Piping
5.5 m Bias Binding
Zipper foot
Tips for attaching the piping:
No need to pin the piping beforehand. Match the raw edges of the the piping to the edge of the tablecloth. Line up the zipper foot with the needle to the left. See the figure below.
Sew slowly while guiding the piping along the edge of the tablecloth.
Tips for attaching the bias binding:
Fold the start of the binding open before folding over (see figure below) to ensure a neat overlap.Sew in the groove of the open bias binding. (see figure below)
Happy sewing!
The same concept for applying piping into scatter cushion edges can be used. We will do a scatter cushion with piping soon and share on the Blog.