Burlap Halloween Table Runner

Well I told you a few days back when I had to explain my orange picture issue that I had a tutorial coming to make a Halloween Table Runner!  Well here it is!

To be honest, I am using the term “runner” loosely.  I, in fact, have a runner in my house. He is 15 months old and sits about 2 inches shy of eye level to any table top we have. Which means that anything hanging over or off a table gets pulled down. So mine is sort of like a “Table Placemat”! You can make yours a true runner, and not the 15 month old type! :)

Items Needed:

• Burlap
• Cheap fabric for backing
• Matching Thread (to Burlap)
• Contact Paper
• Exacto Knife
• Spray Paint
• Sewing Machine
• Straight Pins

I started off by figuring out what size I want my runner to be and then cutting the burlap about 2″ longer for both height and with.  So I wanted mine to be 15” x 38” so I cut my burlap 17” x 40”. I cut the backing fabric closer to size, adding about 1″ of allowance on both height and width.

I am not a seamstress. I am not a fluent operator of a sewing machine and I don’t claim to KNOW how to sew. I just know how I want it to look and figure out a way to make that happen. So if you are a seamstress, fluent in operating a sewing machine or do indeed KNOW how to sew, then you can use correct form and terms and all that stuff. For the rest of us, here is how I slapped this guy together!

I placed the burlap with the side I liked best facing DOWN. I then centered the backing fabric with the side I liked best facing UP. I then folded the excess burlap over the backing and pinned into place using straight pins.

When I got to the corners I just cut a notch out so they were not so bulky.  I know that’s not how you should probably do that but 1. It’s burlap and 2. It’s me! So that’s how I made it work!

 

Then I sewed all four sides!   You can use a bit of Fray Stop if you need to on the edges.  I just trimmed mine and it was fine.  It’s the back anyway!

I couldn’t find a stencil I liked for a bat in the stores. I wanted one that wasn’t too cartoon-ish but also one that wasn’t screaming “Batman”! (I was not previously aware of my strong bat design feelings!) I had a whole roll of contact paper left over so decided to make my own stencil.  I drew a bat on some scratch paper and traced the design on the contact paper. I repeated this for both ends of the runner. I then used an Exacto knife and cut out the bats shape from the contact paper.

I removed the backing and positioned the contact paper on the runner.

I sprayed one end of the runner at a time.  I folded all the extra runner under the confines of the contact paper before I sprayed.

Using black spray paint, I gave the bats about 3 even light coats of spray paint.   When this side dried, I removed the contact paper and repeated with the opposite side of the runner.

Here’s what I ended up with! I am really, really happy with it.

It fits nicely on my table with enough room around it for our dinner plates and coloring books and play-doh.  Halloween and Fall are the perfect holidays for “rough around the edges” types of projects!  I also fell totally in love with Burlap on this project!

*Again, I apologize for the not so stellar photos