tablecloths

What material are tablecloths usually made from? Not the oilskin kind, but a nicer one. I'm guessing a tablecloth might be one of those things it's cheaper to buy than to sew...

Dunno what weight they are... Ivy-leaf jacquard linen, very smooth, very traditional, at least as old as I am. They are exactly like old fashioned restaurant table linen from the first half of the last century!

And I *do* wash the polycotton, but you cannot boil the crap out of them! You get greasy stuff like gravy or candle wax on them, it takes several stain treatments and several washes at 60 degrees. The white linen ones can and do get boiled in my machine's boil wash. Anything that doesn't come out after that treatment can be bleached.

Sounds like a decorative hand worked type one rather than the heavy duty ones my mum passed on to me as she now only has a round table and these are rectangular.

You can still get the fabric occasionally, and I got a great bargain on some big napkins to go with them recently. They were the over-run product of a hotel order. I got them for about 30p each! I keep an eye open for stuff like this when the Croft Mill list comes out.

Hi Kate, Do you know what weight linen would be best for Tablecloths? are they colored or white? Do you actually boil them? do they release stains better than the poly cotton? why can't you wash the poly cotton ones?

I've always wanted linen ones, but I found a linen one at the flea market and when I washed it it fell apart and came out of the dryer looking like I washed a box of kleenex (without the box).

Thanks, Kitty

If you want something "Holiday Spiffy" you can probably make it for less than buying......I make a sheer overlay (polyester) with a poly dress lining underlay for Thanksgiving (USA) and it turned out great. I just washed up on regular cycle and hung to dry............everything food-related came right out.

I like to keep a tablecloth with a "busy print" on my dining room table

-- because I can just leave it on there and it doesn't look dirty. I should mention that we rarely use that table for meals, and I have a terrible predilection for covering any horizontal surface. Things run in cycles, and for a while, there were only solid color tablecloths available. I wanted prints with lots of colors, so I started looking for print fabrics with sufficient weight (and width) to them, and just did a rolled hem on my serger. By gosh, they look quite professional!! Not the high-quality linen family heirloom type professional, but the colorful tablecloth for every day use professional.

So I would say to use whatever fabric you think will work for you. Because tablecloths are not fitted, if you get bored with one, or decide you don't like it, you can always use it as yardage for another project.

When I need a quick tablecloth I buy a new sheet and serge it ro the size I need. You can probably find something in the color you want in Linens and Things or Bed and Bath. They always have sheets on sale. Juno

I don't know of any fabric that *hasn't* been made into tablecloths.

You'll probably want to avoid thin, transparent fabrics -- but lace fabrics make very nice tablecloths.

Polyester latches onto grease stains and hangs on for dear life, so I wouldn't use anything with polyester in it -- but I've seen pure-polyester fabrics sold specifically for making tablecloths. Must be a lot of very neat eaters out there!

Linen is the easiest to get stains out of -- but it needs to be ironed for the very elegant look. (Frankly, my dear, I line dry them -- or drape them over the shower-curtain rod in the winter -- store them clothespinned to wire hangers, and put them right back on the table.) If you aren't too fussy about exact color, linen can be had very cheap these days -- much of the currently-available linen has been "cottonized" and sheds lint something fierce, but at least the fuzz helps to keep people from noticing that you haven't ironed it.

There's a checkered cotton damask made especially for making tablecloths. This also makes excellent butcher aprons and dish towels.

Since all you have to do is to cut it off the bolt and finish the raw edges, tablecloths are traditional beginner's projects.

Joy Beeson

Sara, my favourite is damast there are two linnen and coton damast someting like this