Patriotic Preview

This fabric represents a party. Yes, a 4th of July party. I decided to chronicle this project as I'm going through it, instead of lots of pictures at the finale. This way, if you decide to do anything for your party, you have some inspiration and, more importantly, some time for completion. When I look at other blogs and see the finished product, I always think, "what a great idea, I should have thought of something like that." So here's your chance sister!I will be making a long string of flags out of this fabric. I want to string it up around the tables where we'll be hosting the "smoke-off" of great food and fireworks at dusk.
Let's start with the table clothes. First, I want to show you how to square your fabric. I bought this ticking in red and white for table clothes for the party. It's 60 inches wide and 9 feet long. I wanted it to hang over an 8 foot table, at least 6 inches on either side. When they cut the fabric at the store, they don't always cut it straight. Now they try, don't get me wrong, but you really should make it straight when you bring it home.

I wasn't sure how long the tables were so here's a trick that you can pull off...put multiple tables together and overlap the pieces to get the right length for the entire table. Line up the stripes so it's a continuous line and that will make it work.


Use a cutting board to line your fabric up. I use a very inexpensive board made of cardboard for about $5. It's huge when you fold it out and I've used it for years! Just be careful to only use scissors; a rotary cutter will cut right through it.

Line up the selvage (the long white strip where there's no pattern) along one side of the cutting board and follow a guide line straight down the perpendicular side. I used pinking shears (scissors with the triangular teeth) because I didn't want to sew a finished edge but I also don't want it to fray. Plus I just think shearing is charming for a casual party. At this point, I'm not even going to finish the selvage edges either. Our party will be country charm with an ounce of patriotic posh. I'll save the technique for the catchy eye-level items.