I almost titled this post "Success and Failure" with the emphasis on "Failure" but decided I would use this as a learning opportunity - for those of you who attempt this project. Maybe in my failures - you will find YOUR success!! I'm not much of a crafter honestly. I should probably be happy it turned out the way it did because although it was a disaster, it was not a total disaster!
So - I thought it would be fun to make this:
It's so elegant - I love the words, the corn - the simplicity - of this.
I went to Hobby Lobby and got myself some burlap - but decided I liked the darker color better. That, my friends, was my first mistake. My second mistake was the costly one. I didn't think I could write as elegantly as the person above. I DO like my handwriting but I thought what this person did looked trickier than what I could do. I spent a while browsing Hobby Lobby trying to think of alternatives. Stencils and paint? (Would have been a better option if I could have found stencils I liked) Time consuming. What I settled on was iron on transfers. Then I could download pretty handwriting, print it onto the transfers and wa-la - right? Wrong.
So lets go step by step here.
1. Purchase Burlap. I purchased 2 yards. It was 3.99 a yard at Hobby Lobby. In hindsight - that wasn't enough. Not enough to do a big drappy hangover like the one above. I can't sew - don't even have a thread and needle so I needed to make this work WITHOUT any sewing involved. Either I need a smaller table or more fabric - but it'll do for this year. Here's what my burlap looked like on my table before I began messing with it (should have just left it like this!!):
2. Purchase Iron on transfer paper like this. Note - you can get it for light background (8.99 for 8 sheets) or dark background (8.99 for 5 sheets - Hobby Lobby). Now - I didn't know what to go with so I went with the light background kind. You will see why this was a problem in a moment. Then again - the dark may have been an issue as well.
3. Go to your computer. Choose your favorite font, and type your saying/quote/verse/words into Word. Now - let's note something here. You have to be able to mirror the image (text) for an iron on transfer. My Word version does not do that, nor does my printer options. So - my next thing was to type it into Word and then copy and paste them into Photoshop Elements. In Photoshop Elements, I clicked on "image" and then "rotate" and then "flip horizontally". Then I printed them onto the transfer paper - checking to make sure the setting was on landscape and not on portrait and that the paper was in correctly. Here's what I ended up with: (Note my computer was, of course, running out of ink. However - it ended up creating a cool color effect.)
4. Next - I placed them around the table to get an idea of where I wanted them. So far, so good, right? Just wait - things are about to fall apart....
5. Now - they say to trim them down. They say within 1/4 inch. Obviously, I have no clue what a 1/4 inch is - or I just wasn't paying attention. There is REALLY good reason for this rule. But - wait - I'm jumping ahead of myself sorta. The next thing I did was cut them down and "pin" them to the tablecloth - again - to check spacing, get a feel for what I was doing. It looked like this: (please note the lack of trimming - it's uber important)
6. I did do a tiny bit of really lax measuring just to try to get them semi positioned correctly. Next - took the iron, set on 4, flipped these over so the letters were facing down (and in the correct direction) and ended up with this - where you will note the problem: (when they say trim - they mean trim)
7. Of course, I failed to remember to trim the words on both ends of the table - but - hey, at least I trimmed on the side words., and the ends of the table "match" even though not in a good way!! Here's how much I trimmed the side words:
8. Now - the iron on thing - did not work so great everywhere. In fact - I had a really difficult time peeling it all off and have several spots where letters are messed up. Killing my perfectionist personality. I have told the family if anyone even THINKS of putting anything on this tablecloth and getting it dirty - someone is going to be maimed :) The reason for that is - the lettering is not secure and I highly doubt this sucker will survive a wash - meaning it has to last 'till the big turkey day OR ELSE!! Here's the final result:
See how the "P" of Pumpkin is already coming up and the "e" in pie is messed up? Grrrrr....
Note the dog and the mess in the middle of it all...
Forgot to fringe this side - will get to that later....
9. That last picture looks nothing like the very first. Not what I had in mind - but it will do. The corn thing is not quite finished yet - need to trim the top, fluff it, and straighten it - but it gives you a general idea. It's 9 cobs of corn (??) tied together with rubber bands, then string, and finally the gold ribbon. If you remember in a previous post, I mentioned I wanted to do the candles. I have since nixed the idea - too much money and work and after this didn't work out - I have run out of oomph to do anything else. My alternative, which you will have to wait 'till Thanksgiving to see, is that I bought 10 tiny pumpkins (for 1.00 I might add from my neighborhood pumpkin farm! - 10/1.00!!) and 10 votives. I'm going to carve a little spot in the pumpkins to put the votives and that will be my candles. Also have some gourds and fake leaves to spread around the table - but all that will wait 'till turkey day. If I do it now, the pumpkins will rot before the big day.
So my friends - that's it. It does not look like the original - but it's something. I spent more than I wanted to but still ended up under 20.00. Hopefully you can learn from my mistakes and your tablecloth will look just like you dream! If you end up making one - let me know and I'll link you into this post so others can see you creative works! (and I would like to see what you do for the future!!)
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