Monday, March 30, 2015

My recent secret project - my custom Girl Scout Tablecloth

So you may or may not have guessed that my life right now has been consumed by tons of these Girl Scout cookies.  Being the troop Cookie Mom (as well as the troop leader) is a lot of work and takes a ton of time but it is so worth it.
Most of Sunshine's deliveries are done, we only have a couple of people to meet up with, so this pile is down to almost nothing. My troop has also already had 2 cookie booths, at a local business and at a mall, and we have one more to go this Saturday.  They are rocking the sales and we've already far succeeded our troop goal but I'm also ready to be done with it for this year. 

There is one project that has been worked on and finished recently and I wanted to write this post Friday but me coming down with a really nasty cold prevented that.  Now that I'm feeling semi-human it is time to show it off.

Do you remember me showing you this pile of fabrics a couple of weeks ago?  Do you happen to notice that they look very similar to the colors of the boxes above? Might these fabrics have a Girl Scout theme going?
Why Yes they do.  That stack of solid turned into this. What did I hear you saying?  You can't tell what it is?
Well.....that big 9 yard piece of Fern Green got cut and hemmed on all 4 sides.  First a single fold hem.
And then a double fold hem.
Nice and neat. Then the other solids were sliced into strips and attached together (sorry no picture was taken).
After that, I made this with a big paper template (thanks to hubby) and a bit of simple machine applique.

You see...for our cookie booths I wanted a very cool and unique tablecloth for our troop.  This is the one that I could have bought from our local Girl Scout council.
It is just ok but my biggest issue with it is that it wouldn't be usable for any other event we take part in.  We already have a Pancake Breakfast/Food Panty collection/Bake Sale scheduled for the fall plus some other events are in the works. So a custom design was in order.  My table that we are using at the local business cookie booth is 6 foot long but the one at the mall that they provide is 8 foot long so that added a little bit more calculating to the design.
I solved that little problem fairly easily.  Do you see those faint Green stitch lines on the sides?  I didn't think so.  That was the point.
You see....I added velcro to the extra length on the underside of the ends.
When attached to each other, the length is instantly the shorter size needed for the 6 foot table.
This is what it looks like from underneath.
The large 24" high trefoil was attached to the front panel of solid color strips as such.
Ta Da! Here is the finished custom table cloth for my troop. My girls are Daisies now, represented by the Blue at the bottom, but we will continue to use this as they advance through the levels...Brownies, Juniors, Cadettes, Seniors and finally Ambassadors.
The front panel attaches to the top/side piece with velcro.


The back panel attaches the same way.
So now you're probably wondering why I didn't just sew the panels to the top/side piece.
Our troop will also be participating in upcoming local parades such as the one for the 4th of July so we'd also need a parade banner.
The front panel and back panel can be velcro-ed to each other and we'll just add a pole inside and viola...instant parade banner.
To deal with the extra length on the front panel when it is on a 6 foot table I added a clear snap and folded it around to the sides. I didn't need to do that to the back panel since that isn't as visible plus we'd need to access the stock stored underneath.
I also added clear snaps to the corners so that one can't see the cookie stash hiding underneath (plus the council has a strict rule about extra boxes and empty boxes not being visible under the table.
Here is a simulated 8 foot table view.
I'm super proud of how this idea turned out and it has already gotten a lot of praise at our 2 cookie booths held so far.
At the mall cookie booth Friday night the couple of other Girl Scout leaders that saw it wanted to know where I got it.  You should have seen the shocked look I got when I told them that I made it.  It really was an easy project to construct and it will serve my troop well for many years to come.

And so you can see the tablecloth in action, here is a picture from out 1st booth at the local business.
And here is a picture from our mall cookie booth this past Friday.
Who can resist buying cookies from those cute faces?

10 of you added your own colorful comments:

Aunt Marti said...

Good on you for committing to your daughter's GS experience. I often say, "All I needed to know, I learned in Girl Scouts!"

sunny said...

How clever! And it really catches the eye. Job well done.

Carol said...

Clever indeed! Nifty to be a table cover and banner:) Hope sales go well. I have only one box left:P

Val's Quilting Studio said...

Fantastic!! This will be used for years to come!! Great idea. The girl's booth looked wonderful!

Betty Woodlee said...

I love to see ingenuity at work. You get A+++ on this project!

Needled Mom said...

Very cute! I really like how creative you were with it.

KatieQ said...

What an amazing idea! I love that the table cloth will serve many purposes as the girls move up in Scouting. They must be really proud to use it for their cookie booths.

Stephanie said...

I love your table cloth! I am hoping to make a similar one for my troop. Could you help me ... what type of fabric did you use?

Unknown said...

I absolutely LOVE this table cloth! Like you, I'm a Girl Scout troop leader AND mother to 3 Girl Scouts indifferent troops! I've been researching online and not impressed with the size nor design of the current tablecloths, so I thought about making my own. This design is beautiful and I love how you incorporated every level in it. I'm going to give it a try...keep your fingers crossed!

Angie Whitecotton said...

how many yards of the other colors did you buy? I really want make this! Thank you!