Burlap Table Runner with Ribbon Edges

My sister is getting married in less than two weeks (!!!!) and I made these table runners for her wedding reception! This is a really easy project, and each 10 foot table runner took me about half an hour, and the 26 foot table runners took me about an hour each. This post is a step-by-step tutorial for you to make your own no-sew burlap table runners!

Finished table runner

Our inspiration photo came out of a wedding magazine, and was just a plain burlap table runner on a white tablecloth. The wedding reception will be outdoors in her backyard, and the overall feeling is to be casual but sophisticated. We thought we could jazz up a plain table runner with a beautifully thick grosgrain ribbon in dark brown, one of the wedding colors.

To start with, you will need the following materials:

burlap – I bought a 100 yard roll of 14″ wide burlap. Sooooo much easier just to cut the length.

Burlap 14″ wide

grosgrain ribbon – I bought 2, 50 yard rolls of 1- 1/2″ wide ribbon in dark brown.

Heat-n-bond – 100 yards of 7/8″ wide

scissors

iron

ironing board

Materials for Edging Burlap

optional: cutting mat with rotary cutter, and L-square.

Cutting mat, rotary cutter and L square

Step one: Measure out the length of your table runner. I made three table runners 10 feet long, and 4 of them 26 feet long. To measure, since I did not need things to be absolutely precise, I used the arm-length method.

Measure Burlap

I measured how long a yard (3 feet) is when one arm is outstretched– and found that it worked perfectly to where the one arm is outstretched, and my other hand meets my shoulder when folded in. I used this for the first part of the measurement, and then used my cutting mat (with its handy dandy printed ruler) to measure out the remaining foot or two.

Step two: Cut the burlap in the desired length. Here I used my L-square to get a straight line.

Cut straight line

Step three: Roll the burlap up. This will make it so much easier to handle when attaching the ribbon, and will help keep it from wrinkling.

Roll up burlap

Step four: Plug in the iron and set it for whatever the heat-n-bond directions say. Unroll a little bit of the burlap, and start attaching the heat-n-bond to long edge. As you got, roll up the burlap so that you can keep it neat-n-tidy. Seriously, this helps keep everything so much easier to move and work with. Also, cut off any stray threads of burlap as you go.

Attach Heat-n-bond

Step five: When you finish one long edge, turn the thing over and go the other direction doing the exact same rolling method as you go.

Flip over and repeat

By the time you have finished attaching the heat-n-bond, you should be ready for …

Step six: Attach the ribbon to the heat-n-bond. Again, follow the instructions on your package.Notice I used 7/8″ heat-n-bond instead of 1-1/2″ wide. I did this because I did want to have a little room (in case of error) and don’t mind the edges overlapping a little bit.

Attach grosgrain ribbon

I chose overlap the edge by about a quarter of an inch.

Back view of ribbon attached

Continue to attach the ribbon in the same way you attached the heat-n-bond. Rolling the burlap up as you go, and flipping it over and going the other way when the first edge is done. Now to finish the table runner…

Step seven: Make sure your end is square, and attach heat-n-bond across the entire edge.

Step eight: Add a small piece of heat-n-bond to one edge of ribbon, to finish the edge nicely.

Attach heat-n-bond to end of ribbon

Step nine: fold the ribbon over on itself and heat to create a nice finished looking edge.

Finished edge of ribbon

Step ten: Measure the length of the ribbon for the short edge, adding another inch for turning over. Cut ribbon, and repeat finishing edge to ribbon on other side. Be sure to make sure that each side of the ribbon is finished on the same side!