Week 16 Craft: Americana Table Runner

Can it be that we are only six weeks away from Memorial Day and the unofficial start of summer?  BBQ's, watermelon and lemonade - ahhh - I love it.  I like having some patriotic touches throughout the house, but didn't want to be overwhelmed with red, white and blue.  This was posted on Pinterest awhile ago, but is for a table runner that is no longer available.

Too cute!  But, because it's no longer for sale I thought I could try to come up with something similar.

Here's my copy cat version:

Instead of a gingham check I used striped pillow ticking.  I mean what's more Americana than pillow ticking?  The original appears to have embroidered stars; mine are stenciled on.  

Here's what you need to make your own:

2 yards of blue ticking (The stripes need to run the length of the runner, so buy the length  you want your runner to be.  Mine is 75" which is why I bought 2 yards.)

8"x14" piece of canvas

sewing machine and thread

Blue fabric paint

Freezer paper

Cut a piece of ticking the length of the fabric by 14" wide and 2 pieces of canvas 4"x14". 

Sew the canvas pieces onto each end of the ticking.  Because this isn't lined I recommend using a french seam.  

Don't know how to make a french seam?  Click here to see how.  

To make crisp corners I recommend mitering them.  Start by ironing the edges in 1/2".  At the corners open the pressed edges out and fold the corner in as shown below.

Trim off the point and fold the edges back in.

Tuck the raw edges under and stitch all the way around.

Now it's time to stencil your stars.  Don't know how to use freezer paper for a stencil?  

Here's the cliff notes version of freezer paper stencilling.  Using an exacto knife cut a star shape out of freezer paper.  With a cool iron press the paper to the canvas.  With a stencil brush and fabric paint fill in the star.  Remove the freezer paper.

Just like that you are done!