Table Runner Using 1 Yard of Fabric

Have you ever been in the fabric store and seen fabric that you would love to have as a table runner? Then you realize that table runners are usually 72" long, so you'd need

two whole yards,

to not have a seam running through the middle of it. So you
forget it .
Well, I saw this idea not long ago at a specialty fabric store. Theirs was made out of many fabrics plus trims. You can see a very simplified version in my idea.

 If you're a sewer, your heart should be singing right about

La La La
Now!

What I did was sew a 17" strip using the width of the fabric (generally, 52-54"), then I made the pointed ends of the runner (I "lined" it with the same fabric, so it looks much the same on the reverse side). In this example, they are each 7" long. The shirred section was cut at approx. 3 1/2"W and 34"L, the short ends hemmed, then the long edges shirred. I evenly spaced the gathers to one edge of each long and pointed piece and sewed it in leaving the lining loose. THEN, I folded the lining piece under, pinned it and top stitched it closed. Both sides look finished.

You can see it doesn't look like you were skimping on fabric, or made a mistake. You could move the shirred areas anywhere up or down your runner. This would be a great way to use a small piece of fabric in the ends for instance to coordinate with your room, or to use a smaller piece of great vintage fabric.

If you use this idea, please e-mail me your pic and I will include it in another post!