Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Sewing: Bandana Quilt Tablecloth (Tutorial)


I made this bandana quilt tablecloth for my daughter's birthday party and love how it turned out. I picked orange, pink, light blue and white as those are the colors of the party but I think this would be great in a multitude of combinations, including patriotic red, white and blue.


I made the cloth 5 22" bandanas long by 3 wide--it's plenty generous for my folding plastic table, dining table, and would be good for a standard picnic table.



The first step was assembling the bandanas. I got some 110% cotton 22"x22" bandanas at Tan's Club. They have a great selection of color and are very inexpensive. I found them to be relatively uniform in size too though not exactly square. I washed, dried and ironed mine before beginning to avoid shrinkage and color bleeding later.

Because I was ordering extra for party favors I didn't figure out my pattern of colors before hand, just made sure I had sufficient quantity and ordered the same number of each color.

Before sewing, figure out the pattern of the final tablecloth. It's fun to lay it out and decide if you want a regular or irregular patern. I did bit of both. My pattern was:

P W O W P
B P W O W
O B P B O

Then start the sewing with your short rows (rows of three). Pin the bandanas right sides together aligning the edges and corners where they meet to form a row--so my first row involved sewing the edge of the pink to the blue bandana, and then the edge of the blue bandana to the orange. After sewing, press the seams to one side to keep the work neat.


Once you have your five short rows (of three bandanas each) you can sew these rows together at the long edges to form the tablecloth quilt. I lined my short rows up again to verify that I wanted to proceed with the pattern I had planned--I actually flipped the middle row based on my initial plan because it made the pattern less regular.


To sew these short rows to each other, pin the rows right sides together, aligning the ends/corners and the seams so the seams match as well as possible.


Sew, removing pins as you go. After sewing press the seam allowances to one side.


Because I was using purchased bandanas rather than quilting squares I had cut to an exact 22"x22", there were some irregularities but luckily this was overcome by a bit of stretching and easing as I sewed. If you find, as I did, that one color of bandana is longer in a dimension you can "cheat" this by creating a bigger seam (so for instance, my white bandanas were left a bit wider in the short rows, so they extended out and then I sewed straight seams when putting these short rows together leaving a bigger seam allowance on the white bandanas hidden on the backside of the tablecloth.) Another solution would be to trim all your bandanas to a uniform size before beginning. Either way, I found the bandanas to be more forgiving than I had thought and the quilt came together nicely despite a few sizing discrepancies.

Voila! Would be fun to do some more, but I am likely on to other things on my list.

If you make a Bandana Quilt Tablecloth I would love to see and share your take on this in my Flickr Group here!

52 comments:

  1. Wow! I am speechless! I've spent over an hour here and I can not get over your creativity! You are one talented girl! And on behalf of anyone who stumbles across your blog, THANK YOU! For finally going public! I've waited long enough. You are truly an inspiration! I can't wait to make this adorable bandana table cloth. How fun! Your girls are adorable!

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  2. K, I have to make one of these!! Thank you so much for sharing and I'll feature on Ucreate tomorrow!

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  3. This is so awesome! You have some beautiful items on your site! I don't know if you haven't been public or something (just basing on a previous comment) but I am your first follower, and I don't follow very many blogs! Great and inspiring work! Thank you for sharing!

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  4. What a great idea. I think this is lovely and I could alter this a bit to make an awesome picnic blanket.

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  5. Yes, I did just decide to make the site public--had been my personal crafting journal. I am thrilled to have a follower--thanks!

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  6. I can't wait to sew my own! Another idea is that my hubby gets these "swag" bandanas from different biker events and doesn't really want to wear them out. This would be a cool way to make use of them, but use it as a throw with a fleece backing. Thanks for the idea to use bandanas, how original.

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  7. I will defintley be making one of these....Brilliant! Girl, I just looked at your girl's dresses and you have some mad skills! And your choice of fabrics are fabulous! I am a new follower
    ~Susan
    www.3punkmom.blogspot.com

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  8. I love it! I wish I had found this before my wedding. I totally would have used those as my table clothes at the reception!

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  9. This is so summery! Very cute idea! I love your blog too....new follower here!

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  10. This is so cute! I am going to make a red, white and blue one for July 4th. Thanks for sharing!

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  11. this is really cute! i think i might try it with some "piping"...

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  12. Darling stuff on here! You are so very talented, I am glad you are sharing.

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  13. I love it. It is so cute!!! Great idea!!!
    I am a new follower and will be coming back to check your great ideas soon.
    funplayroom.blogspot.com

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  14. Way Cute, I'm also making one! Thanks!

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  15. So cute! I love it! Come link up at my party at PonyTails and FishScales!

    terelauritsen.blogspot.com

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  16. So fun to see I'm not the only one who likes the bandana tablecloth idea! If you make one consider sharing photos here: http://www.flickr.com/groups/1460917@N22/pool/ Thanks for the nice feedback!

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  17. Love it! This would be such a hit at our 4th of July BBQ; I'm going to have to make one soon! Thanks for sharing! P.S. Found you via U Create

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  18. Really great. I think it's so cute! and I love the colors you used.

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  19. Very cute. I'll def be making one but I think I'll cut off all the hemmed edges of the bandanas first to square everything up and help it lie flatter. Then I'll re-hem the outer edges when I'm done and maybe add some type of trim.

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  20. i followed a link on DollarStoreCraft. this is very cute. i like the colours you chose.

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  21. Great idea for the tablecloth. I might use this idea for my Fourth of July party...if I do, I'll post on my blog and link the credit back to you. Thanks for such a great and simple project.

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  22. i'm making one of these ASAP! its such an awesome and simple thing to make! thanks!

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  23. This is adorable and so simple! Thanks for the inspiration! I'll be sharing and linking on my Week in Review post tomorrow @ Ready, Set, Craft!

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  24. Love your blog... just gorgeous!

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  25. This is so cool. I want one...but hence no sewing machine. Very clever idea and perfect for summer.

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  26. This is a great idea! How environmental if you thrift all the bandanas!
    I think I have to make one for my craft shows. Beats using a cheap, boring, white plastic one.

    Thanks for sharing

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  27. I love this idea- what a creative thought you had to try this! Thanks for sharing all your tips and tricks!

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  28. I wanted to make something just like this but as a blanket for my boys' beds. Now that I see it I totally want to make one! Found you from Ucreate.

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  29. the candy bar and the cakes looked amazing.

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  30. Amazing! Any little girls dream party! And their clothes? You are amazing!

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  31. We have done this same thing as quilt tops - with denim on the back. They are so cute - everyone that sees them wants one just like it.

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  32. I made one of these thanks to your super cute idea! You can find it over at nightowlcrafting.blogspot.com.

    http://nightowlcrafting.blogspot.com/2010/06/bandanna-table-cloth.html

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  33. This is adorable! What a great idea!

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  34. We did a patriotic version of this. I blogged about it here: (Well half of it.)

    http://meandmyinsanity.blogspot.com/2010/06/patriotic-bandana-tablecloth.html

    Thanks for the inspiration! Adorable party!

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  35. I just wanted to let you know I have linked to this project and thumbnail on our site: http://www.allfreesewing.com/Sewn-Tablecloths/Bandana-Quilt-Tablecloth and this one too: http://www.allfreesewing.com/4th-of-JulyProjects/Patriotic-Pillowcase-Dresses. I think they're great projects that our readers will love to make! We are always looking for more tutorials and sewing patterns, so if you have any similar projects please feel free to send them my way or let me know if you prefer we not link to you. Thanks!
    Karisa
    ktell@primecp.com
    Editor, www.AllFreeSewing.com

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  36. I just posted a "confession" on Facebook about my bandanna obsession... this is something I should whip up... love the idea about a patriotic one, I have EXTRA piles of patriotic bandannas... ooh... they would make for a cute shower curtain in our red, white, and blue bathroom! :D

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  37. Hi - I am really delighted to discover this. Good job!

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  38. This is a super cute idea!! I think I'll add weights or washers sewn up in each corner to keep it from straying in a strong breeze.

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  39. Hi! I know this is kinda off topic but I was wondering if you knew where I could locate a captcha plugin for my comment form? I'm using the same blog platform as yours and I'm having trouble finding one? Thanks a lot!

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  40. @Anonymous: I was using a captcha plugin available through Blogger--it was one of the options for setting up your comments. But I removed it. I don't know about other plugins but I bet if you googled "blogger plugin captcha tutorial" or something like that you might find one. Good luck!

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  42. You inspired me a lot knowing that a simple bandana quilt can be made out into this amazing table cloth. -
    wholesale tablecloths

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  43. Making bandanas by self is really pleasurable. It is like what have been done by my wife when she wants to give birthday gift for our daughter. Your tutorial might be good guideline to make better bandanas for my wife. Thanks.

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  44. I made one for my daughter's 4th birthday party this past weekend-- and I forgot to take a picture! I'm not as proud of mine though... haha! I wonder is the bias is the same on all of my handkerchiefs? It doesn't lay very prettily. :) Ohh well.

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  45. What a wonderful site you have! I love all the great tutorials! :)

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  46. you gave me so many good ideas....I love it!

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  47. I love this and so many of your ideas! Pinning them and plan to make them, you're very creative! : ) Thanks for sharing.

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  48. Love this idea would love to make a quilted bed spread using native american bandanas, unfortunatley here in England they are hard to find and expensive, My Grandson Lives in the U.S.A he is American by birth, maybe he could send me some

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  49. This will make a perfect gift for a step daughter that loves to have parties outside. I can't wait to start. I'm glad I found you on AFS. You are now at the top of my must read blogs list. Thank you so much!

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