No Sew Tablecloth

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It's Girl Scout cookie time!!!   I have been a "Cookie Mom" for the past few years {OMG I can just see that as the next TLC show} and part of cookie sales includes cookie booths.  There is a lot of competition in our area when it comes to selling cookies, so I was looking for something to make our troop stand out... so I decided to make a table cloth for our cookie booth.  I used only materials I had on hand so it cost me $0!

This is the final product in action.

This type of tablecloth obviously works well for Girl Scouts or Boy Scouts, but would work equally as well for a trade show or tailgating, or simply for a birthday party.   And you don't have to use felt, but it does work well because it doesn't fray.  There are several "frey stop" products on the market under various names, but that would add a lot of extra work and it would have to be pretty special fabric to make it worth while.  Here's a brand I've used on other projects: Frey Check

How I did it:

1 - I used outdoor fabric so it would be more resilient and can be wiped down with a wet cloth.  I measured the size I needed simply by placing the material over the table and marking where I wanted it to hang.  Then I took it off and cut it.

2 - The turquoise around the bottom edges is cross grain ribbon.  I attached the ribbon to the fabric with fusible webbing: Dritz Stitch Witchery Heavy Duty Tape- 5/8''W from Joann's.  The webbing also keeps the tablecloth material from fraying. 

3 - I did the letters next.  First I selecting a font I liked then printed large sized letters right from Microsoft Word onto regular white printer paper.  Then I cut out the letters.  

4 - Trace the the letters onto the felt, but you DO NOT have to lay the letters out all at once and trace them to make a word.  You want to use the least amount of material, so jumble all the letters close together, upside down, sideways, whatever works!

5 - Now trace the same paper outline onto a sheet of fusible webbing.   MAKE SURE YOU ARE TRACING THE LETTER ON THE RIGHT SIDE OF THE WEBBING:  If the shiny side of the webbing is to be ironed to the felt, then trace the letter outline onto the matte side of the webbing.  {It's not as confusing as it seems!!}  You can buy fusible web by the sheet: Heat'n Bond Ultra Hold Iron-On Adhesive- 17''x12''  or by the yard, like you buy fabric: Pellon 725 Heavy Duty Wonder Under Fusible Web- 17''W x 25yds. 

6 - Layout everything first! And make sure you are happy with how it looks before you start ironing.  For words, always start with the middle letter(s) and work your way out for best placement.  {I agonized over whether to have the top line arced and the bottom line straight, or vice versa, or both arced, or both straight.  I know... I have issues!}

7 -  Follow the directions specific for your fusible webbing, but the basic idea is to first iron the shiny side to the felt letter.  Then peel off the backing and iron the newly exposed side (along with the letter) to the tablecloth.  Repeat for all letters.

8 - The process is the same for non-letters, but you can make it as tricky and intricate as you'd like.  For the Girl Scout Trefoil I blew up an image I found online and then printed it.  I cut out the image (outline of trefoil only NOT faces), then traced the outline onto yellow felt, and then cut out the felt.  I repeated this onto fusible web, so now I had a trefoil shaped piece of yellow felt AND a trefoil shaped piece of fusible web.

What shows green in the image above was now one solid piece of yellow felt.  Next I cut out the white portions of the image above, traced each piece onto orange felt and cut them out.  I also traced them onto fusible web and cut that out. {Remember use the mirror image if you don't want your tracing marks to show.}  I then ironed the shiny side of fusing onto the two orange pieces, then fused the orange pieces to the yellow trefoil.  The result was pretty substantial and I'm sure I could think of a lot more uses for this type of felt project, but I digress.  The last step is to fuse the entire trefoil logo onto the tablecloth.

This tablecloth is now on it's fourth year, was used at a cookie booth today, and still looks as good as the day I made it!

Thanks for visiting!
        Smart Girl