How to Sew a Peplum Style Table Cloth

If you want to sew a custom-fit table cloth - that is simple & elegant - I will take you through the steps here! I actually used a large sheet (I bought from a thrift store for $2) for the material - and made the top of the table cloth a double-thickness. There's some bias tape piping which I used around the table & each corner has a ruffle - as well as the center of each side. After looking at this, it reminded me of "peplum" style skirts I've seen. If you haven't seen them, they're adorable - I made one here - a straight skirt with removable ruffle peplum! I hope you enjoy the instructable - you can alter this to make it your own style as well!

Materials Needed:

• Fabric (you'll need to measure your table to know how much is needed)
• Measuring Tape
• Scissors or Rotary Cutter
• Iron
• Sewing Machine
• Bias Tape Piping (recommended, but not necessary)

First, measure the table top & cut out the material (leaving an extra 3/4 inch on all sides for seam allowance). If the material is thin, cut out two layers, iron and sew them together.

If you want your table cloth to look really nice, I recommend sewing on bias tape maxi piping. Make sure you have enough of it to go around the table. Then pin it to the edges of the material (see photo for placement) and use a zipper foot to sew it on nice and close. When sewing it on, you are sewing it onto the right side of the material.

Important Tip: When you get to the end of your piping and you need to continue on with more of it (ie: open up another package of it to continue where the first one left off) - there is a little trick to help you continue with the binding and not make the transition noticeable at all.

1. Sew on the piping until you're close to the end of it and stop about an inch away from the end - do not stitch it on yet.
2. Get the new package of binding out and try to lay it out near where the first one ends.
3. Take a seam ripper, and take the stitches out of the new binding (just the first 1/2 an inch to an inch)
4. Open up the second piece of binding to reveal the cord inside - then snip off about 1/2 an inch of it, just leaving the material which covers it (see photo for help).
5. Then take the new piece which doesn't have the cord in it for the first 1/2 inch and wrap it over or around the binding you started with, then lay it flat.
6. Continue sewing the piping on and the transition will hardly be noticeable.

Cut four pieces of material out - the length of one side of your table and the height (if you want it to be the same as in my images) of
5 1/4 in. These pieces will make up the material you see in the images underneath the ruffled/peplum part. Iron all pieces of material. If you want to use bias tape on the bottom hem of the material, that is up to you. Otherwise, you will need to iron and hem the bottom of the pieces. Also iron and press the top part of the material. Now you will need to sew the four pieces together at the sides to form one long loop.

Next, pin this entire piece of material to the main piece of material. The main piece of material will be right-side up - and the piece you are pinning on will be wrong-side up, and close to the piping. As you look at the image below, you can see that after sewing it on, you'll be able to flip it over and down, then press it again with the iron.

Sew this piece onto the main piece of fabric, very carefully, with a zipper foot attachment (if possible). If you don't have one, just make sure you sew it as close to the piping as possible! after that is done, fold the material down and iron again. The next step will be to sew along the bottom (see image) to create a nice hemmed look.

Next, to create that "peplum" or somewhat ruffled looked, you'll need to cut out 4 more pieces of material - the length will depend on the length of your table and how many ruffles you want. For me, my table was 39 1/2 inches long - and I added 3/4 for seam allowances - making the length of cut material 40 1/4 inches long. But, the pieces I cut for the ruffles were 3 1/2 inches in height by 48 inches wide (rather than 40 1/4). The extra inches allowed for me to make a few decorative ruffles on each side.

To create the ruffled areas, this is what I did. First, I found the center of the piece I was working on, and put a pin there. I then adjusted my sewing machine so I could create some long stitches (the longest my machine allowed for) and I normally have the machine's tension set at 4.5 - now I put it on 8 (this adds a lot of tension). Before sewing, I measured and marked four inches off with pins. I did that at the end of the material and beginning as well. I sewed my ruffles (one at the beginning, one in the middle & one in the end) and then layed the piece out on top of the table cloth to figure out placement. Once placed properly, I pinned it in place. I repeated this process for the other 3 sides. Now, be sure to readjust your sewing machine's settings, back to normal. Then I sewed it right onto the table cloth.

Your beautiful, elegant table cloth is now done! And it's awesome because you've made it yourself! There's so much you could do though - if you want to add on huge ruffles or layers of them - options ore endless!