Thursday, October 13, 2011

Easy project

Today I made a table runner. It's super simple and I love the way it came out! If you know how to sew at all you can make this...


I always begin by drawing a picture of what I'm thinking. It helps me visualize how to go about "making".



I used fabric I had leftover from our ikea curtains that were way too long.



So here's what I did. I didn't measure anything. I hope that doesn't scare or anger you. I laid out about a yard of fabric on my table (my table is very small) and eyeballed how wide and long I wanted my runner to be, then I cut it with scissors (when I'm being good, I use my mat and rotary cutter; but today I was racing naptime). I then used the excess fabric to cut 2 pieces that were wider than my runner to use for the ruffled ends.



Here are my 3 pieces: the end ruffles on the left, and the runner on the right. Next, I sewed the two long sides of the runner, and two short sides and one long sides each of the end ruffles.



If you are unfamiliar with hemming, just fold the edge over twice and sew. Next I pinned on my ruffle and lace. Using the end of the ruffle that I had yet to sew, I pinned it right sides together to the end of the runner. I put a pin on each end to make sure it was lined up and then made my ruffles working from the outside in. At first I just focused on pinning the ruffles and didn't pin them to the runner part of the fabric, I made the ruffles (I just experimented with folding until I liked it), then added the lace by sticking it upside down between the fabrics, even with the edges, then pinned all three together.






Then I sewed it up! 



Here's how it looked. I thought it was a little disappointing so I played with it and decided to fold the end up and sew it into the seam I just made; kind of like a bubble hem.



Here's what the back looked like when I pinned it. I had to make a few pleats to get it to work.



I like the end result much better. 







My husband thought it was too frilly...I think it's french country.

2 comments:

More than Survival said...

We have that EXACT same table!! I love it and we enjoy the storage in the benches, too. Ours isn't yellow so I'm guessing you painted it... good thing to keep in the back of my mind for the future! Love the table runner, too!

Jessi said...

Yes, we did paint it! And I also love the storage benches! I keep extra tablecloths, aprons, and crayons/paper for the kids in mine :)