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| Linen Table Runner |
Today we had craft day at my house. My friend Michelle brought over a super cute burlap table runner picture that we turned into THIS darling linen table runner. She found this great linen, we all thought was better then the burlap in her picture.
Cut Rectangles using your rotary cutter
Runner 18"x 6'
Ruffle 7"x 36"
So I am going to share with you my "super secret" way I gather using my serger. First set your tension to 2.0 or the loosest that it will go. Then run you ruffle piece through the serger. Leave lots of extra thread at the end.
To find the right threads to pull, cut a straight cut across all four threads then fray them out and find the two shortest threads, pull them gently to gather. If they don't pull easily then you may have the wrong threads or they might have become tangled. Just cut them again and look for the two shortest parallel threads. Get a really good grip on your threads by wrapping them around your pointer and middle fingers of your right hand and gently use you left hand to push the gathers toward the center. Then repeat on the other side. It is easiest to work the gathers from each end toward the center over trying to gather the whole thing from one end to the other.
On a sewing machine set your stitch length as big as it goes (between a 4-6, depending on the machine) then sew two parallel stitches at 1/4" and 3/4" from the edge. Gently gather holding firmly to both threads and push the gathers toward the center.
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| Find the two shortest threads |
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| Threads to pull to gather |
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| pin ruffle to runner |
Pin the ruffle to the runner with right sides together. Michelle made the common mistake of pinning one ruffle to the right side and the other ruffle to the wrong side. It is pretty easy to do since there really is no wrong or right side visually. Just thought it might save some of you from doing the same thing, by double checking your pinning before you sew it. (Note: there will be some extra ruffle on each end to play with, if you want a tight ruffle or a loose ruffle you can mess around with it as you pin it). Attached the ruffle to the runner just outside of the gathering stitches around 3/4". Trim the ruffle to match up with your runner sides.
We left the edges raw. I might go back and stitch a zig-zag or straight stitch about a 1/4" around the edges so it doesn't fray too much when I wash it.
Happy Sewing!
Amy
