I really wanted to make a table runner for Christmas this year, but I’m waaaaaay too cheap to buy 4 yards of fabric to be able to do so with a single piece of fabric. Since I’m an insane person (with very little sewing experience) I decided that it would be a great idea to make a pieced peppermint runner. First, the math. I’m using an 8 foot table. (At least I think I am. I’m borrowing it from my mom. Uh… mom, that table’s 8 feet long, right?) I wanted there to be stripes in the runner to mimic the peppermint theme, and the magic number ended up being 54. 54 2 inch red stripes and 54 1 inch white stripes.
I cut the fabric into 10 inch sections and then I cut the smaller strips from that. Don’t forget to allow for a seam allowance! I cut a ton of 1 inch stips even though I had already calculated that they needed to be 1 1/2 inches. Maybe my middle school math teacher was right and I do need to show my work…
My fabric didn’t really have a right and wrong side (at least not that my untrained eye could see) so I just put one on top of the other and then pinned them. I even managed to avoid bleeding on the fabric. What? Am I the only one who sticks their finger relentlessly when pinning something? Anyone? Bueller? Right then, moving on.
And here’s my pretty stack of 54 pinned pairs. At this point, everything is going swimmingly. Don’t worry, it’s all about to go downhill. lol.
Apparently I am incapable of sewing a straight seem. Or setting the tension on my sewing machine. ::sigh:: This is why I’m not a quilter. Plus side, I’m related to a bunch of quilters so I remembered to sew all of the pairs first in a long chain.
Here they are. In all there bunched up glory. Next you cut them apart and iron them. You want the seam on the darker side. (See Mom! I was paying attention all those years ago!)
Then pin pairs together and sew a bunch of quads (28). Cut, iron, pin, rinse, repeat. I dom’t have any pics of this a. because it’s boring and repetitive b. because I was watching Sons of Anarchy while I worked on that part and I was distracted by the hotness that is Jax. 😉
I’m not sure what went wrong, but my edges were all kind of messed up. Not to worry.
I evened them right up with the rotary cutter. So my runner’s a bit narrower than originally planned. Whatevs.
Time for a little double fold bias tape, which if you’ll remember from our blanket fun, I consider just about the best thing since sliced bread.
I spent a million years pinning the first length and it was totally not worth it. I don’t know if I need a different foot or what, but by about pin number three I had to start repining as I went. I skipped it for the next two lengths and was much happier.
And here it is! It lays a bit oddly, but for a first pieced project I think it looks pretty good. It has confirmed for me that I am not ready *at all* to try quilting. I think I would lose my mind.
