Upcycling new life into stained vintage tablecloths

Stains happen to tablecloths. Chocolate ice cream, gravy, blueberries and red wine don’t care if your tablecloth is fresh from the store or a vintage beauty; they are equal opportunity stainers. You can hit the stain with conventional and unconventional remedies and if you have lived a good and just life, the fates will be with you and the stain will come out. Sometimes. Stained vintage tablecloths take patience, cleaning chemistry and luck to get clean.

Storage stains also happen–those bothersome yellow and tan lines that stealthily weasel their way on to outside folds of vintage tablecloths. There are lots of recipes out there for getting those stains out. (Read our Vintage Unscripted tips here.) I use Restoration and it surprises me sometimes with the hopeless cases it restores, but even it can’t get out every yellow crease stains or ancient food stains.

There’s nothing that says you can’t use a stained tablecloth for its intended purpose. The first stain causes the angst. Any stain that comes after is inconsequential and not worth vexing yourself over so you don’t have to stand by the buffet with uncapped spot remover ever again. But most of us shy away from entertaining with stained linens, afraid of becoming the talk of the town, and not in a good way. There’s no reason to sentence beautiful but stained vintage tablecloths to a textile recycling collection. Repurpose, renovate and renew them so you can still enjoy the pretty prints, embroidery, lace and/or simple fabrics for a while longer. Here’s some ideas we love…

Hoop your tablecloths

Frame the prettiest part of your tablecloth in an embroidery hoop and turn it into wall art. Gemma of thesweetestdigs.com has a simple tutorial for making fabric hoop art, so fun and fast we bet you can’t make just one.

Stitch up an apron

Pretty printed tablecloths make great aprons. They’re durable, washable and cheerful. Tipnut has more diy patterns for aprons than you have stained tablecloths. Sew up a passel!

Make napkins or tea towels

Fussy cut your tablecloths into pretty squares to use as napkins and rectangles to use as tea towels. Simple hems on all sides sew up in a snap. And again, tablecloths are durable and more than willing to ride through the washer weekly and still be ready to serve. This Sewing in the City video will have you sewing mitered corners in no time.

Drape away the stains

On the Hometalk blog, DeeDee took a seriously stained Christmas tablecloth and turned it into an adorable window valance. Her tutorial is not exactly spinning straw into gold, but gosh, it’s close.

Make a market bag or lunch tote

Ashley of My So Called Crafty Life made a handy tote bag from an old tablelcloth. Size them down for a snazzy lunch bag. Most lunch bags and grocery totes aren’t washable–these are! Kiss those bacteria-laden bags goodbye and add vintage style in the process.