What Do You Get....

When you cross a smart alec who has some sewing skills, with a vinyl table cloth? You get an awesome gag gift, is what you get.

My husband's friend, JJ, always wears one of several plaid shirts, which everyone calls his "tablecloth shirts" The guy must have a dozen or more, and he brings them out for any occasion. Date night? Yup. Christmas party? Yup? Concert? Yup. Really they aren't the most fashion forward shirts out there, but you know, if they're good enough for Grandpa Jed, they're good enough for JJ.

I thought Christmas would be the perfect time to make a custom tablecloth shirt for JJ. I went to the dollar store and found the most perfect $4 vinyl tablecloth, paired it with a really simple men's shirt pattern, and voila. A tablecloth shirt.

From a distance it looks like any other plaid shirt, but get up close, or be the lucky one who gets to wear it, and you can see that it's stiff and crinkles when it moves.

I added real button holes and did topstitching too. From the outside, I wanted it to look as much like an actual wearable shirt as possible. The only thing I didn't do was finish any seams inside. Sure I wanted it to look good but I wasn't interested in going overboard.

I can't wait for JJ to open his gift. It's going to be a great laugh. If I'd been thinking when I bought the tablecloth, I would have bought a couple more, so I could have made him some matching pants!