This past weekend, I set out to make my table runners for the reception. Sure I could have rented them through my venue, or bought them online, but where's the fun in that? So instead, I purchased 17 yards of natural burlap fabric from Joann's Fabric for $43 (!!) and figured it couldn't be that hard to do. Right? Wrong. Here is my story....
It arrived at my office (which is where I have all my purchases shipped to) in a rather large box.
Maybe I underestimated how big 17 yard is? I'm really not so great with math and measurements. :)
Ooh, looks pretty enough, right?
Ok, now I don't have any pictures of me actually cutting the burlap because it's kind of hard to take pictures and cut at the same time. You understand. I wanted my runners to be 14x72. I didn't feel it was necessary to have them hang down to the floor, and with 60" rounds, I figured that 6" on each side will be enough. I really hope it is!
So I measured and cut 7 large pieces, each 72" long. And that is when I realized.... "Houston, we have a problem". Aww crap. Apparently burlap does not cut straight. No matter how tight you are holding the fabric, or how slowly you are cutting. Most of my pieces had crooked edges. So then I googled it. And came across this amazing article. Aha, so that's how they do it.
I measured across 14" and made a small 1/4" cut.
Considering I didn't have a seam ripper, I improvised. With a paper clip. (Go ahead and laugh, it's ok!) It took hours to do it this way though.
Once an entire thread was pulled out, I was left with a perfectly straight line to cut.
And then you repeat. Over and over again. In a matter of 6 hours I got about 8 or 9 table runners done. I only have about 21 total to do! Looks like it's going to be a long week for this gal!
Anyone else have any experience with burlap? How did your project come out?
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