Play Table Cover

Santa brought John and Matthew a new table and chairs this year. Isn't he sweet?! I am still in the phase of trying to keep it clean (we will see how long that lasts!) so I made a table cover for it to use when John is painting, glueing, coloring, etc. Since we are about to start some Valentine's activities for tot school, I made this cover with Valentine's material. I will make another more generic one (and less girly!) after February is over.





Supplies:





Table cloth (I got this one for $5 at Walmart and ended up with TONS left over. I will probably make a mat out of it to put down to protect the new wood floors!)
**Could also use oil cloth but I was already at Walmart and didn't want to run to JoAnn's!**
Elastic
Heavy Duty sewing needle
Table duh!
misc sewing supplies like thread, sewing machine, scissors, etc

1. First I turned the table over and laid it on the back of the table cloth. I figured I needed to make the cover 7 inches bigger than the table (to cover around the edges and have room to make casing for elastic), so I marked 7 inches around the table.



2. Using my marks, I cut out a circle from the table cloth. It wasn't very exact but it didn't matter that much since it would be gathered and hidden.



3. Fold over your cloth to make a casing for the elastic. My elastic was 1 inch wide so I folded the cloth over 1.5 inches and pinned all the way around.



Here is what it looks like when it was pinned all the way around.



4. Sew around your casing at the end of the fold closest to the CENTER of the cover. Remember to leave an opening when you sew so you can insert the elastic! I make an 'X' with my pins so I remember to stop sewing otherwise I get into a sewing trance and will keep going without leaving the opening...and then I get upset when I have to rip out stitches!



5. Attach a big safety pin to the end of your elastic and start pulling it through the casing. This was the longest and most boring step for me!



6. I then put the cover on the table to see how tight I wanted the elastic to be. Once I found a length I liked, I pinned the elastic, removed the cover from the table and sewing the elastic ends together. Cut excess elastic and then sew up hole on the cover.





...and you are done! Your very own custom cover! It was really easy to make, took less than an hour, cost very little to make, and now the boy's table will stay clean for a little bit longer.





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