How to Make a Dining Table Protective Pad

The dining room table sees a lot of action in most households. It is not uncommon to find the table pressed into service as a desk, study table, crafting site, and, of course, an everyday spot for serving and eating meals. It's easy to overlook the need to protect your table surface from excessive wear and tear. With moderate sewing machine skills, you can create a table pad from reversible, quilted fabric to place beneath your tablecloth to ensure that your hardworking table will serve you for many years to come.

Instructions

1

Measure the width and length, or diameter, of your tabletop using the tape measure. One standard yard equals 36 inches. Purchase the appropriate yardage of reversible, quilted fabric based on your table measurements. You may have to figure an 2 extra inches of fabric if you are joining two pieces of fabric to get the correct width or length for your table. Quilted fabric comes prepadded.

2




Simple sewing skills are required to make a table pad.

Determine the yardage of the double-fold bias tape required by multiplying the width measurement by two, multiplying the length measurement by two, and adding these two measurements together. There will be no drop measurement, as your protective pad will be an exact fit for your tabletop.

3




Cut the fabric to an exact fit.

Place the fabric on top of the table and cut the quilted fabric to exactly fit the top of the table.

4

Insert the edge of the quilted fabric into the double fold of the bias tape, and pin the bias tape along all of the fabric edges, taking care to pin all three layers: bias tape, quilted fabric, bias tape. You won't need to hem the bias tape because the double fold places the raw edges of the tape fabric inside of the fold where it's not visible.

5

Sew along the pinned edges of the bias tape/fabric, using the widest zigzag setting on your sewing machine and removing the pins as you sew.

6

Iron the bias tape edges of the protective table pad to press the edges and set the seams. Place the table pad on top of your table, and cover the pad and tabletop with your usual tablecloth.