Football Field Table Cloth

 

I absolutely love football season! 

The weather, the food, the excuse to hang out all weekend...I just love it. Every year we go to at least one Clemson University game and one Cincinnati Bengals game. I have seen so many cute tablecloths on Pinterest that I had wanted to make one of my own for a while. When my sister told me she wanted a football themed bridal shower, I knew this was the time to do it. The idea of a football field tablecloth had been floating around in my head and now I had two excuses to make one -- for my tailgating parties and my sister's shower!


I have an applique machine so my first idea was to applique the numbers and use ribbon for the yard lines. But, knowing I was going to blog about this and that not everyone has an applique machine, I wanted to find a way to make the tablecloth that everyone could do, with or without the machine, and at any age. Seriously, even a child could make this!

So, I whipped out my copy of Kim Deneault's "Raggedy Reverse Applique."

Buy Raggedy Reverse Applique, here!

Her technique and patterns ideas are great for all ages and projects for any event. After reviewing the instructions, I knew this would be perfect for my football field tablecloth.

I used green (Fern) and white (Snow) 44" mid-weight cotton. I wanted it to fit any table so I cut 3 yards of each. You could obviously make yours any length.

Buy Northcott 44" Mid-Weight Cotton in Solid Fern.
Buy Northcott 44" Mid-Weight Cotton in Solid Snow.

I sewed the two layers (one white and one green) right sides together on three sides and flipped it out to sew together the opening. 

I drew out the 50 yard line in the middle and used that line as a guide for the rest of the yard line markers. I wanted my numbers to be larger, so instead of doing the entire field (a tedious and potentially cramped field) I decided only to go out to the 30 yard line on each side. Depending on how large your numbers are, you could do the whole field.

Quick Tip: I used a FriXion pen because it disappears using heat from the iron and if I messed up, I knew I could easily and quickly remove the marks. 

My numbers drawn on the fabric with a FriXion pen.

I drew my numbers free-hand using a 3.5" x 4.5" rectangle as a guide. You can see, there's some measuring and a little math involved this way, so feel free to just print your numbers out and use a template. Unless, of course, you're like me, and this "measurey-mathy" version makes sense!

 

Using techniques from the book, I sewed and cut out the numbers revealing the white layer below. It's like magic, right?

I did cut a little closer to the stitches than the book recommended because I wanted more of the white to show through. Depending on how intricate your reverse applique, you may want your allowances to be larger.

Here's the tablecloth with half of the numbers cut and half of them with just the stitches done.

I washed the table cloth twice to get the raw edges really raggedy before the party.

Everyone at my sister's party loved the tablecloth and I can't wait to use it at a football tailgate this fall! 

What do you think of reverse applique? Have you ever used this technique before? I'm trying to think of even more projects where I can use it since it really is so simple and creates such a fun effect!