My son recently had a day off from school, so I was looking
for a project that might be fun for Thanksgiving. We worked together to make this table runner.
He was able to choose the pattern for the
ribbon and weave it into the burlap while I cut out a stencil for the words and
ironed on the freezer paper.
First measure the table and add on your desired length for
the runner to hang off the edge. We made
ours 13”x54” so we were able to make 3 runners out of a yard and a half of bolt
that was 36 inches wide.
Decide where
you want to weave the ribbon through and remove a couple strands from the
fabric to make room for the width of the ribbon you have chosen.
Decide what you want your pattern to be for
the woven ribbon. My son made each
ribbon pattern different – the first was over 4 under 2 etc. Decide if you want to remove any of the
strands at the edges to make fringe.
Machine sew the edges to prevent further unraveling and to hold the ends
of the ribbon in place.
Trace your text
onto the dull side of the freezer paper.
Place the template, shiny side down, on your runner and iron without
steam.
Dab acrylic or fabric paint onto
the stencil with a foam brush being careful not to work the paint underneath
the edge of the stencil.
Once the paint
has started drying (if you are a very patient person you can wait until it is
completely dry, but I’m always curious and too excited to see it to wait that
long!) peel off the paper stencil – if you are careful you can reuse this
stencil once the paint has completely dried.
I hope
you enjoy this tutorial. It makes a
great project to do with a young elementary aged child and reinforces some math
skills with repeating patterns to boot!
Materials:
Burlap
Scissors
Ribbon
Kids Plastic Large Eye Needle
Freezer Paper
Exacto knife
Cutting mat/Old magazine
Iron
Fabric or Acrylic Paint
Sewing Machine (I sewed mine, but if you are more of a no sew crafter you
might be able to do this step with fray
check.)
Brown or Tan Thread
