Run Away with Me!

Yesterday was craft night for myself and my friend Lauren.  We decided to tackle making table runners since neither one of us could find a runner that matched what we were looking for.  So thank you pinterest.com for having articles on how to make a table runner!  Im going to walk you through my 2 hour table runner night of fun!

First things first, you need to go out and get your supplies!  I bought 2 yards (too much is better than not enough!) of a fabric that I thought would best fit what i was going for.  I also bought 2 packages of fusable hem tape beacuse I cant sew to save my life, and 2 tassles for something fancy on the ends.  All the supplies can be found at Hobby Lobby or Joanns, although Joanns has by far the larger fabric selection.  Other supplies you will need is an iron, fabric scissors, and fabric pins.  All of the supplies I used are in the picture below.

To get started you need to measure out the length and width you want your runner to be, add 2 inches to each side to be sure you have enough to make the hem.  Cut the fabric to your dimensions.  I didnt double the fabric up to make it puffier since mine was just going on the dresser and I honestly didnt want a thick table runner, but you can leaver the fabric doubles if you want to.  Once you cut your fabric now we can make the triangle points on each end.  I just did a freehand triangle from the sheet of 8.5x11 plain white paper, but you can always do something more precise if you are a perfectionist (if one day I sell these then I will but since this was just for me and I didnt have all the right tools I made do with what I had).  To cut the triangle out, I taped the template to the back side of the fabric (always make the cuts on the backside, well at least thats what I do) and cute about 1 inch away from the actual template.  So there was a black edge all around the triangle so that I could make my hem.  Below is a picture of the "finished" step

You can see I already pinned, but here is how I pinned the triangle:  I left the triangle template in place and folded the fabric over the template.  Carefully slide the template out from under the fabric and pin the edges together all the way down the edge, do the same for both edges of the triangle.  Now repeat this step for the other end of the runner.  Now you are ready to do the length of the runner.  I do have to admit that my lines were not as straight as they could have been, but again I dont have a fancy table with lines like some major crafters do so I just made do with a table top, but if you have one of those big boards with all the lines on them, I would suggest using it as it will help you make great straight lines.  Remember from earlier you have 2 inches of extra fabric on each side of your runner, fold over 1 inch and pin in place all the way down the runner.  Repeat that step for the other side of the runner.  Now with everything pinner you are ready to iron.  This step is really important because once you remove the pins, if you didnt iron your fabric, it will just flip back over and you will have to do your work all over again.  Now take your iron and iron down all the edges, removing the pins as you go.  I always keep my iron on high heat so I make sure it gets pressed down really well.  Run your iron over the fabric for about 10 seconds each lengh and that should be good.  Once you have ironed the whole runner and taken out all the pins you are ready to seal your hems.  Cut the hem tape in strips that fit the triangle tips and the entire length of the runner.  Hem take has a sticker like backing that you have to remove before you iron it on so make sure you remove that before you iron.  Once you have your strips of hem tape and the backing removed, stick that between the bottom of the fabric and the folded over edge of the fabric.  Once all the hem tape is in place you can start ironing.  Make sure you give about 30 seconds per each section of the iron so the hem tape gets melted in place.  If you feel like 30 seconds isnt long enough then leave it on a little longer.  Below is a picture of the sealed edges, its not perfect but hey it looks good to me!! 

Once you get all the way around and all your edges are sealed you are ready to put the tassles on, if you decided tassles were the way to go for you (and why wouldnt you they are so much fun!)  What I did, since like I said I cant sew to save my life, I used the hem tape again to seal them to the runner.  I make 2 strips of hem tape the length of the ribbon that was attached to my tassle and ironed it to the runner.  The ribbon that was on my tassle was not satin ribbon but the kind where the glue can come through, so I let that sit for about 10 minutes to make sure it was dry before I did anything with it.  Once your tassles are on, you are ready to put your beautiful runner wherever you want!  I hope this was easy for you, and if it wasnt, let me know how I can make it easier!!  Below is a picture of my runner before it went on the dresser (the dresser in the previous posts that is getting a makeover, come back for the completed project soon)

Project Houewife out!!