All Set to Party

Falling Star Tablecloth

This simple table cover adds a festive mood. If you want to cover all bases, dress up your chairs for the New Year, too.

A sheer overcloth and corner ties
make a plain tablecloth sparkle.

• Sheer netting (size to fit your dining table)
• Wide band of silver fabric to fit the perimeter of the netting plus 1 inch
• Silver or light gray thread
• Straight pins
• Scissors
• Ironing board and iron
• Blue tablecloth
• 12 lengths of wired ribbon, each 1 yard long, in silver and dark blue
• Precut wooden stars (or cut from cardboard)
• Silver paint
• Crafts glue
• Large safety pins

1. Make an overcloth from sheer netting, encasing the edges with bands of shimmery silver fabric. Fold the silver fabric band in half lengthwise, wrong sides together, and press. Fold each long edge under 1/4 inch, wrong sides together, and press. Press short ends under 1/4 inch. Pin band to perimeter of netting, placing center fold along edge of netting and being careful to keep band even on both sides of netting. Miter or overlap banding at corners as necessary. Ends will overlap 1/2 inch. Machine-stitch 1/8 inch from long edges of banding, or blindstitch along long edges.

2. Place overcloth atop a blue tablecloth.

3. Make corner embellishments: For each corner, tie a large bow using several yard-long pieces of wired ribbon, and curl the ribbon ends. Paint wood or cardboard stars silver, and let dry. Glue a star to the end of each ribbon.

You can also download the free star pattern to make your own stars. (Downloading requires Adobe Acrobat software.)

4. Attach bows to overcloth. Fold up the overcloth at each corner, and attach a bow using a safety pin hidden on the underside.