I have a larger-than-most dining room table in my home, coming in at just under eight feet long when both drop leaves are up and over three feet wide to boot. Needless to say, it can be difficult to find the right type and size of table runner for the dining room so I decided to whip up one of my own using a spare drop cloth and a few quick stitches.
Let me start by clueing you in on my inspiration for this project, other than the fact that I had all the supplies and knew it wouldn’t get much quicker or easier than this. I follow a small home and lifestyle blog called Little Farmstead and Julie is always sharing photos of her beautiful and cozy house. In one of her recent posts she showed a close-up photo of her table, complete with runner, and that’s when the light bulb went off in my head. While it looks as if her table dressing is perhaps made of linen, I had a drop cloth and so I gave it a go.
To make my little (or actually rather large) runner, I decided on a width and length for the finished piece, used scissors to make snips and simply tore the cloth at the cuts to create the finished dimensions. With my sewing machine, I stitched two close lines about a quarter-inch from the frayed edge along the entire length of all four sides, and that was it. I used a matching thread for stitching, but I think a contrasting thread would add a cute little pop of color.
So there you have it — my drop cloth turned table runner. It just doesn’t get much easier than that, and I gotta say I’m diggin’ it (even the hubs piped up with a compliment).
