Making your own fall leaves patterned table cloth and napkins

You can make your own marvelous table cloth and napkins for Thanksgivings with this craft using fall leaves. The leaves can be easily found outside your house or you can print freehand or draw freehand of fall leaves. Try to search neat and pretty leaves outside your house so they will give wonderful pattern on the fabrics. You can also buy leaves stamps at any craft store. This craft will make a fresh look for you instead of using store bought napkins and tablecloth. With this, family and guests will be impressed by your own hand making and it will gel greatly with the thanksgiving\’s ambience. This craft also works wonderful as presents. Get ready to get started on this wonderful creativity with the instructions below.

Materials and tools you need:

1. Leaves
2. plain or colored fabrics
3. fabric paints/dye
4. hard roll
5. fabric scissors
6. medium or small tip paint brush

How to make:
First, cut your plain or colored fabrics into sizes of tablecloth or napkins that you desired by using fabric scissors. You can also buy fabrics already cut for you in craft store or fabrics department. You can use any fabrics that you want; the most suitable for this project are linens and simple cotton fabrics.

Then, spread your fabrics on a table or your work area. Next, paint your leaves/template/stamp with fabric paint using medium or small tip paint brush. If the leaves that you are using are small, then it\’s better to use small tip brush and vice versa. It really depends on how the leaves\’ patterns are. Make sure that the paint on the leaves is not too thick so that in this way it\’s easier to apply on the fabric and dry faster and evenly.

Place the painted leaves/template/stamp surface on the fabric. Roll on a heavy thing such as heavy roll or brayer to make the paint sticks neatly on to the fabrics. After several roll, place out the leaves/template/stamp off the fabric carefully. Repeat process on the other place of the fabric. The pattern should be upon your creativity and imagination, so each will have its own uniqueness and touch.

When the stamping process is finished, leave the fabrics on your work area to dry off for a while before putting them outside for better drying. If you working with small batches of napkins with simple leaves pattern, you can use hairdryer with maximum heat applied. So you can just apply heat from the hairdryer within several inches distance to the painted napkins for drying.

Finally, when the painted fabrics have completely dried, you can sew the edges of the fabrics to make them more neat using sew machine or needle and thread. You can also apply this process for paper cups or runner. For a wonderful gift, tie a beautiful ribbon on the fabric or simply place it in a leaf\’s stamped box.

Additional reading:
http://www.marthasteward.com

Image Credit:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/shaireproductions/3132163058/