Knock-off Crate and Barrel Table Runner

In September, Sarah and I went down to Kansas City to go to a bachelorette party.  Of course we had to do some shopping while we were down there. We met up with Sophia and Ginny and and spent a ridiculous amount of time at the newly opened Ikea.  This may be my new favorite place!

Another favorite place we were able to make it to was Crate and Barrel.  I could spend ALL day in this place.  Along with my new favorite french fry recipe book, (If you didn't know, fries are my favorite thing EVER) I found this great table runner.

And then it was $70.  Yeah, not gunna happen.
How hard could it be to make?

Here's all you need:
-2 yards of linen or muslin fabric (I used muslin)
-thread matching the fabric
-7 to 10 different coordinating colors of thread


Decide how big you want your table runner to be and cut your fabric length and width one inch bigger.  (I wanted my runner to be 11"x 52" so I cut it 12"x 53.")

To make the finished hem, press each side of your fabric under 1/4".

Now press that under again so that the raw edge of the fabric is tucked inside.  Pin this down.

Mitered corners will give your runner a more finished look.  Open the corners of your pressed fabric so that you can see the pressing lines. 

Here I traced over the pressing lines with a water soluble marker so I could see them better.  Draw a diagonal line through the square that the pressing lines make so it goes to the edges of the fabric.

Now cut along the diagonal line.

Use your fingers to fold the raw edge of the diagonal over.

Refold the fabric edges so they match your pressing lines and fold the diagonal edge in to the edges match up like in the picture below.  Do this to all four corner and pin like crazy.

Your hem is all prepped. Just stitch it down.  The closer you sew to the open edge of your hem, the better the runner will lay flat on the table.

Now that you have the basic runner complete, it's time for the fun part!  Use your water soluble marker to draw curvy lines from end to end of the runner.  Make sure some of the lines overlap.  Luckily, this isn't supposed to be perfect!

Pick out which colors of thread you would like to use and the order.  If your sewing machine can do special stitches, you may want to spend time experimenting with sizes and which ones you like best. If you don't have all the fancy stitches, just using different sized zig-zag stitches would look great too.

Here are my notes:

P.S. If I can give any advice about sewing, it would be to keep a notebook with notes from all your projects.  It is SO helpful if I need to go back to find measurements, patterns, what stitches I used, etc.

Once you've picked out your stitches and colors just sew along those lines.  

This is a fantastic project for people who can't sew a straight line to save their lives. (**Slowly sinking down in my seat so I don't look guilty**  But seriously, don't ever ask me to sew a straight line.)

Sew over all of the lines you have drawn.  This was where I was originally going to end it, but decided to add a few more.

And once you are through with that, wash any visible marker lines out, dry, and press.  You are finished!

Sorry for the bad picture quality.  I really need to try to take these during daylight hours.

Thanks for reading!!

The last few weeks...

Hello again.  And even after I promised myself to start posting more often, I failed.
I thought it was about time I shared some updates on my life.

The most significant thing that happened this last month was that my dad was in a bad accident.  He was sorting cattle on November 19th.  He went to pull the end gate off of the truck and the wind took the gate and brought dad down with it.  He landed on his face and his arms went numb for a second.  He was able to get up and walk around, but was in a lot of pain.  In normal farmer fashion, he decided to not go into the ER that night.

The next day the pain was worse, so he finally gave in and went to see the doctor.  After an x-ray and a CT scan, they determined that he had fractured his C2 vertebrae.  (This is a HUGE deal.  This level of the spinal cord can affect everything neck down, including breathing.)  He got a helicopter ride to Nebraska Medicine in Omaha and they put him strict bedrest until they could do surgery.  November 21, they did surgery to put a screw through the broken piece of the bone. He had a couple more days in the hospital and now has to wear a C-collar for 6 weeks.  He can't lift over 20 lbs, drive, and has to take it pretty easy when doing chores, but compared to what could have happened this is nothing.  We sure had a lot to be thankful for this Thanksgiving!



On a lighter note, I just got back from a weekend in DC!  It was great, but way too fast as always.  We started the registering for gifts process.  Once we got started, we had a blast! It's like a shopping spree, but you don't actually have to spend any money.
Patrick and I have had the worst time trying to find time to take engagement pictures with our photographer, but we found an almost-as-good substitute:

Who knows, this may be the only save the date we have.  Thank heaven (haha) one of us lives where 7-Elevens exist!

Thanks for reading!