Easy Sew Table Runner for the Perfect Fall Party!

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I have a dear friend who’s motto is, “I love to throw a good party.” I love attending a good party! I don’t have many opportunities to throw a good party, though. There are lots of occasions for a party. Birthday, anniversary, going away, baby/bridal shower, etc. One thing I’ve never considered is throwing a fall party!

The air is crisp, the sun is still shining, the leaves are fading and turning gold. Ahh, fall. Why not celebrate it?

To create the perfect fall party, I decided I needed food, decorations, and a perfect fragrance! I wanted my guests to walk in and take a deep breath.

 

I wanted to focus my time on my food but have bold eye catching decorations that wouldn’t take forever. I decided to make an easy sew table runner. It was something I’d never done before and I wanted to give it a try.

And as for giving my home the fragrance of fall, I headed to Walmart to pick up my fabric for the table runner. While I was there, I headed to the Home and Candle section and sniffed all the new American Home™ by Yankee Candle® brand products to see which ones would fit not only my table-scape, but also the “feel” of my festivities.

My kids helped me. There were a lot that we wanted! I love the look of the apothecary jars. Only $14.93 for a 19oz? And $10.93 for a 12oz?! At these prices, we could definitely afford more than one candle. That’s exactly what I was hoping for! I grabbed a few in different colors, fragrances and heights.

I also grabbed a few cuts of fabric, and I was on my way. (Gotta love one-stop-shopping!)

And now, I’ll teach you how to make this easy sew table runner in an hour or less.

Truly.

I am a fair seamstress. I’d say more fair-to-the-middle. I took Home-Ec in 7th grade – and that was literally almost 20 years ago. (19 years ago, to be exact.) Since then I’ve sewn a thing or two. Even tried my hand at making a quilt last winter. But I would in no uncertain terms say I am great at sewing. All my sewing pins are “easy sew.”

Easy Sew Table Runner

If you know how to iron and sew straight lines, YOU CAN MAKE THIS! And after I made it, I took pictures and sent them to everyone and I know and said, “Look what I made!!” I was so proud of myself. It was my own design, and a lot of the appeal comes from the fabric.

I wanted fabric that has the look and feel of fall, but is also transitional. What if I want to use this in the spring or summer?

 

So I chose this festive yellow fabric as the background/border, and this bold blue damask as the main eye-grabber. I almost didn’t buy the blue. In fact, I picked it up and put it down twice. But as I thought about pairing that yellow with any other fabric, the blue just kept popping back in my brain. So I went for it. The yellow was a pre-cut piece that had like 2 ½ yards. I just cut a ¼ yard of the blue.

I took my spoils home and began measuring and cutting and writing down the steps. What I love about this design is that it’s so easy, and so versatile. You can make your runner as wide or thin as you want. You can make your background border as wide or as thin as you want. You can spruce up the ends if you want. Or just do it the quick and easy way I did.

Ready? Here we go!

1. Measure – Measure your main fabric. Cut your background fabric to be 4 – 5 inches wider. (Please note, this will NOT be your final table runner size!)

I cut off the excess rough edges to try and make it straight, then I measured. If you don’t have a cutting mat, just do the best you can with whatever tools you have. My main fabric (the blue) was 18 inches wide. I decided I wanted about 2 inches of yellow on each side. I knew I was going to be rolling and hemming each fabric, so I measured my yellow to be 5 inches wider than the blue (about 2 – 2 ½ inches on each side). So, my blue fabric was 18″ wide, my yellow fabric 23″ wide. If you want your edges to be not quite as bold, then decrease the width by an inch, but I wouldn’t make it any smaller than 3 inches wider than your main fabric.

2. Fold and iron – Take the edge of your background fabric and fold it over ½ inch. Iron it in place.

Fold it one more time and iron.

Pin it in place.

Repeat this process on the other side of the background fabric.

3. Sew hem – Take your background fabric the sewing machine. Sew one straight line.

Try to stay in the middle of the fold (as seen above and below) and this will help keep your line straight.

You may backstitch if you’d like, but it’s not necessary since you’ll be hemming the short side in just a few minutes.

4. Fold and Iron, again – Now it’s time to iron your main fabric. This time I only folded and ironed once. I folded over the edge ½ inch and ironed it in place.

You may do the second fold and iron if you’d like. I didn’t because I didn’t want the edge of my blue fabric to be too bulky.

5. Center your main fabric on your background – I laid down my main fabric and centered it on my background fabric.

Once the sides were even, I pinned it in place. Here I noticed that my heavier fabric edges weren’t quite straight. It was a little skewompis.

I just folded and tucked and pinned as I went, and it turned out great! (This is an exact science, have you noticed?! 😉 )

6. Sew main fabric onto background – I took my almost-table runner back to the machine. I lined up my blue fabric so that the ironed edge was flush against the side of the presser foot. If I kept my fabric lined up the whole way down, I got a straight seam! Repeat on other side.

You’re almost done!

7. Fold over and iron, again! – For simplicity’s sake, (and to avoid a bulky edge) I decided to just fold and iron once.Pin it in place.

I liked the look of having a yellow border at the bottom of the runner, but it was too much of a hassle to fold over the ends and then resew everything.

So I took the raw ends of my runner, and I folded them over. I ironed them, pinned them in place, and sewed them.

You can fold and iron twice if you’d like. I only did it once. I figured I wasn’t really going to be wearing this out very quickly. Yeah, I want it to hold up in the washing machine, but it’s not like my table runner is going to go to football practice or anything. And like I said before, I didn’t want my edges to be too bulky. I wanted them to lie nice and flat so that any food or dishes I put on them didn’t wobble.

8. Shake it out. Lay it on the table. Admire it.

Send me a picture. (Or tag me on Instagram – @debandreasen) I’ll admire it with you!

Yes, that’s it. You’re all done! How do you feel? You just made a table runner? Now you HAVE to have friends over! Whip up your favorite fall treats. Light an American Home™ by Yankee Candle® brand candle to fill your home with the fragrance of fall.

I chose Sunny Sands (I’ve been to the beach during the fall!), Fresh Apple and Shades of Fall. Each is completely different and yet lends their own spin on a fall fragrance.

The food was fun to come up with. Peaches and cream, mushroom and Parmesan frittata, cowboy cookies, hot cocoa with freshly whipped cream, buttery crackers with cream cheese and homemade raspberry jelly. To wash it all down, we made an apple tangerine cider.

 

This is my daughter asking when she can drink the hot cocoa. 🙂

With so many choices of American Home™ by Yankee Candle® brand products, you can buy a new candle for every week of fall. I love fall, but I hate that stale, shut in feeling I get when it starts cooling down so much we can’t open windows. Problem solved!

Just be sure to follow the candle instructions very carefully. They’re easily read on the bottom of the candle.

Pulling out my new fall fragrances from American Home™ by Yankee Candle® brand is one of my favorite things about the change of season. What is one of your favorite things about fall?

 

Want more Easy Sew projects? Check out our No Sew hair bow, No Sew fabric flower and Easy Sew Box Pouch!