The Lazy Girls’ DIY

I consider myself less than crafty, so when I do manage to create something (especially in less than half an hour), I just have to share it with you. This little table runner was a snap to make and if I can do it, you can do it. Let’s call this the lazy girl’s guide to making a striped table runner. Read on for the super easy steps.

Materials

Canvas Drop Cloth
paint and supplies
blue or regular masking tape
hemming tape

I bought the smallest canvas drop cloth I could find at home depot for $10. I had all the other materials, so $10 for the whole project felt doable.

Cut to size

1st step- measure the size you want your runner to be, adding a few inches for the hem.

Hem

I only hemmed the one side I cut. I left the other three sides with their factory hem to save time and effort. However this is a drop cloth and the craftsmanship is not something to write home about. It didn’t bother me. Less pressure for my hem. Nothing like low expectations to really get you motivated.

The iron on hemming tape gave me a bit of trouble because the material is so thick, plus there is a plastic backing to the drop cloth. I had to leave the iron in one spot for at least a minute or two to really get the hem to set. I was thankful I only had one side to hem.

Tape

To add stripes, and give the table runner a bit of pizzazz, I used leftover paint from my desk makeover. Since I wanted to showcase the texture of the canvas, I chose to keep the non painted stripes the original canvas color and weave.

In order to keep the stripes straight (and to avoid measuring along the length of the runner, i.e. I was being lazy, I used stripes of tape as a guide. I placed them side by side, knowing I’d peel off every other strip once I had covered the whole cloth.