My kitchen table (that was my grandmother’s, which my husband calls the “bomb shelter” due to its weight…{sigh} I totally love it.) has a center opening where the leaves can go in to extend it. Over the last few years, the opening doesn’t close tightly and probably could use some cleaning painting so I have been in need of something to run the length of the table and cover the “crack” up.
This cute little runner that I literally whipped up hardly needs a tutorial, but I will quickly show how I did it just in case anyone is interested. I am hooked completely on burlap these days, and have seen in “blog-land” variations on these with ruffles, and I wanted one. I looked on ETSY, but didn’t want to pay $40 so I figured I could make one pretty easily.
The best part is that while I really don’t like to sew (but am so glad I know how, thanks Mom!) due to my impatient nature, I actually made this on my grandmother’s vintage sewing machine (hmm…is there is a “grandmother” theme going here?). Trust me, I have been carting this sewing machine around with me for ages and I am always totally shocked that it works perfectly. I usually borrow my Mom’s newer Singer but she’s busy making pillowcase dresses for girls in Haiti (a post on that soon, she’s amazing). However, since she took her sewing machine along with her to Florida for her annual “winter jaunt” so she could keep making the dresses, I broke out my fallback. Its amazing that my Mom’s circa 1970’s machine is just a newer version of my grandmother’s, if anything my grandmother’s is even simpler to use. I checked the instruction manual and the last copyright date is 1941, that’s how old it is. Really, they just don’t make things like they used to!
Anyway, back to the project at hand…So I cut down my burlap to size and just used fray check on one side and used the selvage on the other and then quickly stitched up some ruffles out of white muslin. (To make a ruffle you just make a center seam with a loose stitch, then pull one of the strings gently to gather the fabric).
Then I glued on the Ruffles to the burlap. I would have sewed them, but was afraid how the machine would handle the burlap.
So here is the finished product…super cheap as I had everything on hand, but it would cost less then $10 to make this, and super easy, less then 30 minutes. A perfect little project.
Thanks for stopping by!
Hi! This just looks so lovely and I think the fact that you made it on your grandmother’s sewing machine makes it that much more special! I’m totally like you in that I don’t really enjoy sewing (definitely the impatient thing) but getting the look you want for less makes it worth it for sure! Thank you so much for coming over and linking up to Inspiration Friday this week. You gals have some fabulously inspiring things going on over here! 🙂
Vanessa
So cute, great idea to add the ruffles like that!