Monday, September 15, 2014

DIY Burlap Table Runner

I've been wanting a cute table runner for our octagon table for awhile now but I've been having a hard time finding one that was the right size/right price/right look. I was walking through Hobby Lobby the other day and I happened upon a roll of burlap with a bunch of smaller decorative rolls. This seemed like the cheapest/easiest way to get exactly what I wanted so I grabbed (literally, Will was trying to climb out of the cart) a roll of the burlap and a chevron burlap roll for about $12 (they were on sale for 40% off) and headed home to try and put a runner together. 


So here is where shopping with a toddler puts a kink into DIY. I of course didn't actually read the labels while grabbing them so I only got enough to make a 6 ft long runner since I wanted to put the chevron on both sides. Luckily, our table is 5 ft wide so it still worked without having to go out and get more and while it would have been nice to make it longer, I figured a smaller overhang would probably deter Will from yanking.


I cut the chevron pieces to length and then ironed them in half.


I decided to go with Stitch Witchery over sewing to attach the sides so that I didn't have to worry about sewing in a straight line or seams showing.


I took the cut-to-size burlap and sandwiched it between the chevron piece with some Stitch Witchery thrown in. I kept the overlap pretty small so that the runner would be on the wider side.


Stitch Witchery is pretty easy to use. You put it between the pieces you want to join, cover everything with a damp cloth, and put a hot iron on top for a few seconds. The timing will depend on the thickness of your material and I always (carefully...it's hot) check the seam before moving on to make sure it stuck.


I repeated this process on both sides and then finished the ends (after realizing that I cut the second chevron side too short and having to trim everything else to match). It felt like this took awhile to do because 1. I had to work on it when Will wasn't around (you know... hot iron) and 2. ironing when it's like 100+ degrees out sucks, even if you have A/C because it can't keep up.

In reality it only took me about an hour and a half and I'm pretty happy with the end result despite the few hiccups.


A few added decorations later, and things were feeling a lot more like Fall.



Can you see my little plant hanging on to dear life? I'm really hoping I can coax it back but things are not looking promising...


Cute right? 

All the rest of the decor items are old items that I've collected over the years. We love filling the jars depending on the time of the year. Sometimes we fill them with candy but this year I decided to just go with some fake leaves and berries.

How about you? Are you decorating for fall yet or are you holding on to the last bits of summer? Do you have any fun fall DIY's planned?

7 comments:

  1. Love this! What a great idea. And, I'm all about stitch witchery, too! :) Pinning!

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  2. This turned out sooo nice! btw I feel your pain about shopping with toddlers, I go through that with my 4 kids! you would think that I would know better by now, but I can't seem to escape them! lol

    I'm also really crushing on your octagon table! awesome kitchen.

    stopping by from SITS.

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    1. Thanks for stopping by! We have a tutorial on how to build the table if your interested :)

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  3. Love your table runner! Happy Fall Lisa@ Sweet Tea N' Salty Air

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  4. This is really cute and pretty! :) Great idea! I'm on the search for the right table runner as well, maybe I should try your DIY :)

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  5. I love how your burlap table runner turned out! I recently trimmed some pillows with chevron burlap ribbon and velcro -- I love working with the burlap ribbon!

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