Double Sided Table Runners

The solid green side can be for Mardi Gras, St. Patrick's Day, Christmas, or any day you want to use green! The shamrocks are for St. Patrick's day. You can't really tell in this pic, but the green has a gold sparkle to it, while the shamrock side has a silver sparkle sheen.

The solid purple side is for Lent, the print is for Easter. I absolutely adore the Easter print, which was the only Easter print that I could find that wasn't completely secular. This has "He Is Risen" and "Rejoice" printed on it, so it is truly a print worthy of the occasion!

Yesterday I mentioned that I was able to do some sewing. I had wanted to make a table runner for Lent. In an article I had read about sharing Lent with your children, the author suggested using a purple table cloth for the season. Table cloths + my family doesn't work unless it's vinyl, which I'm not sure if I could find a purple vinyl table cloth, unless it had bunnies on it. So, when I had purchased the fabric for the chicken saddles I saw the shade of purple that I really liked. (And yes, the chicken saddles now match my Lenten linens.)

 Anywhoo, the kids went with my mother in law yesterday afternoon, so I pulled out the iron and sewing machine. I knew exactly how I wanted my table runner and shelf scarves to look. I had purchased a sort of gold shade of thread and wanted to use one of the fancy stitches that my machine can do. I wanted to iron the hems in and pin them so all was straight and neat. But then I looked at the clock and felt a twinge in my back and thought how in the world was I really going to do this? (And along with my Martha tendencies, I am also very instant gratification oriented. Sound like fun, don't I? Wanna come over and craft? ;0)

I looked at my fabrics and decided that the easiest and neatest way to make these (sorry, I forgot to mention that I wanted to make the green table runner for Mardi Gras, too!) was make them double sided. You see, I'm also rather cheap frugal when it comes to craft supplies, preferring to wait for sales, coupons and (the best!!!!) clearance. I had only bought 1/2 a yard of the shamrock print and saved 1/2 yard of the purple material for my table runner. I had plenty of the green sparkle because that had been on clearance (yay!!!) for like a dollar a yard years ago before I even had children. (I know, yada, yada, yada, get to the point rambling woman that has conversations with her cat) With only 4 pieces of fabric, each 1/2 yard, I ended up with two table runners for about 6 holidays/seasons.

Reasons to make double sided table runners:

• it saves time- you don't have to sew 2 runners for 2 different holidays/seasons/occasions
• it saves money- you don't have to buy more than you absolutely need of a costly fabric or buy another piece of fabric to back it
• it saves space- you'll only have to store half the table runners that you need

Now, I'm not going to give any sort of tutorial here. I think we can all agree that I'm not that good at it! And besides, it rather easy. Sew your fabric faces/right sides together, leaving an opening so that you can turn it right side out. Once you have it turned right side out, iron it so it is nice and flat, the seems pressed out neatly. Now, keeping a consistent seam allowance, sew around the edge of the runner all the way around. Voila! You've got a table runner!

These are the two shelf scarves that I made. The one with the fancy stitching on the right is on the secretary that is on our family faith wall. The one on the left is on a little shelf in my bedroom where I've made a little prayer corner. Unfortunately the fancy stitching made the fabric pucker, so I was only able to do it on the two sides of the shelf scarf, and not at all on my table runner. :(

Well, it's time to turn in for the evening. I'll be sharing more about our family faith wall and preparing for Lent. Have a lovely evening, Friends.

Blessings,

Kelly