Tablecloth Clothes

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What I Made

I have a collection of vintage tablecloths which I've gathered mainly to create tops and jackets with them. It's a fun project---a bit of a puzzle to find the right pattern design, the right placement, the right accents. I do like how this one came out.

How I Made it

I started with a simple commercial pattern (Vogue V8300) which I purchased because I liked the retro-look and wide neckline with rounded collar. I thought the straight front line and lower edge would be a good way to use the corner designs on my tablecloth. I chose this tablecloth because of the funky illustrations and bright colors to cheer me up on a dreary February day.

I always use a pattern with darts--I'm curvy and my clothes need some curves to be flattering. When I layered the pattern pieces on the tablecloth, lining up the lower corners of front pattern pieces and the fabric, I saw that the side darts on this pattern were going to hit the tablecloth right where the cute donkeys are. Well, that wasn't going to work! So I rotated the side darts up to the shoulders where they would not affect the design too much. I found that I could fit the front and back pieces on my little cloth, but not the sleeves or collar.

Digging through my stash (I love doing that!) I found a nice green cotton that looked great with my tablecloth. So I cut my sleeves and collar pieces from this.

I looked at my scraps left from the tablecloth (I save just about every scrap from my vintage materials!) and looked at the strips with the dozing guy......could I use those somehow? Yes, I liked them as sleeve accents, so I used some Steam-A-Seam to hold the cut & shaped pieces in place, then stitched them down with a tiny zigzag.

The last thing was the buttons for the front. I got out my giant printer's trays of buttons and had fun playing with that for a while. Turns out the black and white stacked buttons looked cute without taking away too much from the graphics, which were supposed to be the main focus. So my jacket is finished and I hope it won't be TOO long before I can start wearing it

Tips and Tricks

• Simple patterns are best. Avoid too many darts, seams
• Your vintage cloth doesn't HAVE to be the body of the garment. Try sleeves, collar, band around the bottom of a jacket
• For stains: ignore (that's the charm of "vintage!"); clever pattern placement(see above); cut out motifs and fuse/applique over the stain
• Keep buttons and trims simple to compliment a busy and colorful pattern

Rain Blanken, DIY Fashion Guide, says: