#patchwork tablecloth

The Patchwork Tablecloth - Dod Procter 

British, 1890-1972

(My old tablecloth 2 years ago when it was still somewhat clean, with my foraged stuff and rose water on it.)

However, that thing has been sitting on my table for 3 years now, and I'm bored with it and I want a green tablecloth. I've been vaguely considering getting one at a second-hand shop, but now with the change of currency to euro, they've increased all their prices, so I've decided against it.

Instead, I'm going to make a patchwork tablecloth.

I've rumbled thru my stash of 'clothes that is to be used for sewing material' and dragged out all of the green fabrics that weren't stretchy or transparent, I also decided to add in a bit of red for contrast, and white because I'm suspecting that I don't have enough green to make a purely green one. Then I sampled all of the colors and made a design in Excel (because I've seen that one post saying excel is good for pattern making; it is!):

I've spent the first day of making it mostly just cutting out the rectangles and figuring out how much of each do I have, and how big I can make it. I decided I hate cutting fabric and this was the most boring part of the process. I also proved not to be very handy with scissors, I've accidentally cut thru a rectangle while cutting out another one. I thought it was funny, then I quickly mended the damaged one, and added a little yellow circle and did something embroidery-like, that made it a special rectangle:

It even got a prominent spot in the tablecloth!

Here's how it looked when I was done cutting and arranging the bits:

Sewing the rectangles to each other was way more exciting! I was doing it by hand because I do not own a sewing machine and I'm not particularly interested in getting one, I've became pretty fast with hand sewing, and was able to put it all together within like, afternoon and a half. Here's some of the process:

I've also realized in the process, that my table is not a square, and that it was unclear why I made the design square, so I changed it into a rectangle while sewing it together:

And you can see the end of my sewing process – it's complete!

So I knew if I made it this way, the patches would make the fabric bulk up at the edges, I've seen in tutorials that people can make patchwork smooth only if they're sewing it on another piece of cloth, but. I figured I would borrow an iron and iron down all of the seams on the other side, so they would lie flat against the cloth.

However, as soon as I've started on that mission, I realized, that ironing seams is actual hell on earth that nobody should go thru for any kind of reason, it was taking me full 5 minutes to straighten just one seam because it kept falling out of place and wrinkling, and that's when I threw the entire idea into the garbage and just ironed the tablecloth on the right side and called it a day.

And it's so pretty! I love it on the table! See without ironing vs clumsily ironed:

Oh and I am NOT hemming this thing. Unless I'm like, really bored one day and don't have any food to forage or process. Which is unlikely. That's for the people with the sewing machine. I'm okay with the messy edges.