Thanksgiving Table Runner

Last week was a tad busy, I’m sure for everyone with Halloween, the beginning of the month, and life in general. We celebrated my husband’s 46th birthday to add to it all.

Now that is all over, I’ve been working off and on, on a table runner for Thanksgiving. I wanted something different for a table runner and made it my own unique piece.

The last few years I have been obsessed with metallic colors around autumn and this year is no different. I am really loving the look of black and gold specifically. Every few years or so I get stuck on a certain color palette for a holiday or season and it stays with me for a few years. Up until last year, my colors of choice for the fall were rust and burgundy.

I started with a couple of yards of black burlap, a couple of yards of unbleached muslin, metallic paint, a gathered burlap trim, a thin crocheted lace trim, textile medium, and alphabet stencils.

To make my table runner,  I cut my black burlap long enough to hang over the sides of my table and a bit wider than a normal table runner. If you want to know how to cut burlap check out my post here.

To give the edges of the table runner a fringed look, I pulled extra threads out from each side of the burlap. I cut the muslin wider than my burlap because I wanted to fold it under and have it doubled, otherwise the burlap would show through.

I ironed the shorter sides and stitched them down first.

 

Then I folded and ironed the long sides down. I waited to stitch down the long sides.

This would be very blasé if I left it with the plain muslin and black burlap so I swooped in with my metallic paints and added stripes to it.

I used three different metallic paints for the stripes, rose gold, bright brass, and rich espresso.

To protect my table, I cut a piece of paper to keep under my fabric while I painted it. Then I taped off three stripes in varying widths.

The rich espresso was four inches wide, the bright brass was two inches, and the rose gold was three inches wide.

Before painting each color, I added the textile medium to the paint.

Once both sides of the muslin were dry, I stitched it onto the burlap, all four sides. I didn’t want lines and lines of stitching to show, so I “stitched in the ditch” of the other hem.

The muslin was still plain after I had attached it. I remembered I had some leftover burlap ruffle and I decided it would finish off the ends of the table runner nicely.

The ruffle needed a pop also and I ran to the store to find something that would help. I found a thin crocheted lace that worked perfectly.

I stitched them both onto the runner and then felt like it needed a tie in towards the middle. The burlap and lace ruffle needed to be pulled into the center somehow for the cohesion of the entire runner. I added a piece of the crocheted lace above the stripes to bring it together. It was just enough to fix it. 🙂

Getting back to my original plan, after adding extras, I used a stencil I had and added ‘give thanks’. I stenciled it onto both sides of the runner so each side of the table could read it. To make sure the words lined up correctly, I waited until the muslin was stitched onto the burlap to paint them on.

I outlined the letters with pencil and went over them with the rich espresso metallic paint.

I am loving these colors and how well my runner turned out. It was a pretty easy project, straight sewing, and a little painting.

Do you have any projects planned for Thanksgiving? I have at least one more I want to get done.

 

I will be linking up with these parties.