This past fall, I was a little preoccupied in being a new mama that I kind of forgot about the fact that I was hosting Thanksgiving.  I did almost all of my fall decorating in the two weeks before the holiday. Though I’m sure my guests wouldn’t have minded an undecorated house, but I wanted to do it anyway. My mom and I found this wonderful patterned fabric at JoAnn’s and I decided it needed to be a fall table runner in our dining room. I figured it couldn’t be too hard, right?

Supplies:

2 different fabrics, coordinating
{see measuring below}
coordinating thread
scissors or rotary cutter
sewing machine
{unless you just LOVE handstitching}
iron

How much fabric do you need?

For determining how much fabric to get, first you should measure the length of your table (we’ll call this “L“). Table runners generally fall about 12 inches past the edge of the table, but I think that is a little long. So decide how much extra length you want past the table (let’s call this “T“). You’ll multiply that number by 2 as you need it on both ends of the table. You’ll also want to add in room for your seams. I do 1/2 inch seams (so add 1 inch to the length).

(1+L+(Tx2)) = length of fabric required.
For this tutorial, L=68 and T=6.
(1+68+(6×2)) = 81 inches = 2 1/4 yards

Hopefully that makes sense! For what it is worth, you’ll mostly find 90 inch table runners out there, but since this is a DIY, you can make it whatever length you want!

As for width, go with whatever you think looks right based off the width of your table. I wanted my finished product to be 12 inches wide, so I cut 13 inches wide to account for seams.

Step 1.

Cut fabric to 81 inches x 13 inches {see measuring guide above}. Pin right sides together.

sorry, it was hard to take a photo of that!

Step 2.

Sew 1/2 inch seams along the edges, leaving open a few inches to turning. Trim your corners.

Step 3.

Turn fabric right side in. Iron the opening in the seam so it lays flat, making it easier to sew shut.

Step 4.

If you are a perfectionist, you’ll want to slip stitch the opening shut. There are great tutorials out there for how to slip stitch… have at it. However! If you’re like me, and you don’t mind a little thread showing, go ahead and top stitch the opening shut. That’s where it is key to having coordinating thread!

Yep, coordinating thread.

Step 5.

Iron all the kinks out and you’re done!

don’t mind the baby’s stuff in the corners of the photo…

oh and don’t mind that awful cup ring on the table… eesh!

See? It did end up being pretty easy.. didn’t it? If you have any questions leave them in the comments and I’ll be sure to help you out as I can!