The tablecloth campaign--first encounter

The nice Martha Stewart cotton tablecloths I bought several years ago are finally so oily and disreputable that they make me think of the greatcoat worn by Turkey, the choleric scrivener in Melville's story about Bartleby. The last straw--and I confess that I did little to prevent the cloth's demise--was that Astrid and I made our gloriously glitter-gluey Valentines on it last week, so now the tablecloth is oily, glittery, and stiff.

Today, having gotten frustrated with the writing I was supposed to do, I switched gears by making a new tablecloth. I used a big chunk of the extra-wide light-blue linen blend that I've been eager to get out of my stash, and rather than hemming it, I used narrow, double-fold bias tape in forest green. It's nothing special--but I like having several cotton tablecloths ready for use at any given time, so style ain't all that important. I'll probably make a couple others, perhaps one out of an ill-conceived quilt top (backed by an old bedsheet, to improve the drape of the cloth, and maybe one from some unbleached muslin. Given what slobs we are in my family, they won't be stainfree for long, so I don't want to put a lot of work in them. (For example, I'm tempted to stamp them with fabric paint, but I'd probably rather use the time I'd spend embellishing one tablecloth by making a couple more.)

I haven't seen a lot of tablecloths I want to buy lately, and the ones I like are usually at least $25, so I think homemade ones are probably a decent deal.