Created by Nikki Johnson of fabric.com

Create some festive and timeless pieces for your Holiday tablescape with these two tutorials. An easier-than-pie no sew burlap table runner and some simple mitered corner napkins that will weather changing trends.

Materials:

• 3-4 yards of red burlap (Shop our wide selection of burlap here)
• 2 yards of linen (we used this one by Telio)
• Coordinating thread for the linen
• Standard cutting and sewing supplies

No-Sew Tassel Burlap Table Runner

For a Thanksgiving table, replace the red burlap with brown, natural, or orange.

When working with burlap, you don’t cut it as you would normally. The weave is far too loose, and you would end up with an unraveled mess!

On one cut edge of your burlap, snip into the selvedge with your scissors next to one of the threads so that you can get to that thread easier.

Pull on that thread you “freed” gently, gathering across the width of the burlap, until you’ve pulled the whole thread out of the fabric.

Now you’ve left a little channel running from selvedge to selvedge. If your channel doesn’t run the whole width of the fabric, you’ll need to pick a spot further in.

Cut down this channel so you have a nice, even edge.

Repeat on the other side, picking a spot that will give you the perfect length for your table runner. I aim for about 1 foot of overhang on each side of your table.

Next, trim the burlap to be about 13” by the length you’ve just cut. This gives you A LOT of extra burlap, but we needed it to get the length of the table. I started at the selvedge, and marked 13 inches from that.

Cut off the denser selvedge edge very carefully, following one thread the entire way. This is like what we did with pulling the thread, which you can do, but I find it simpler to cut it the whole way when we’re working with such a long length. Repeat at your 13” marking as well. Now you’ll have a very long 13” wide strip of burlap!

Now we do some fun unraveling. Starting on the long sides, pull out each thread all the way down, so that you’re creating a fringe. Stop when you achieve your desired look. I stopped at ½” for the sides, since our ends will have a much longer fringe.

Repeat for the short ends. This time, I created a super long fringe (5”), so that we can make tassels out of it.

To make the tassels, grab about 10 of those strings at a time. Some of mine were less than ten to even out the size of them, since I didn’t have multiples of ten. Play it by ear.

Now make a simple knot right where your fringe begins.

Repeat until all of your fringe has been tasseled, and you are finished!

Classic Mitered Corner Linen Napkins

To make these classic napkins, all you need is a half yard of linen for 3 napkins, so determine how many napkins you want, and add ½ yard for safety and shrinkage.

Each napkin will start out as 18”x18” squares, so cut out as many as you want to make. I made 8 napkins total for 8 standard place settings, but you can make as any or as few as you like.

One tip for these- don’t estimate, measure exactly for the most accurate results.
For each napkin, fold over ½” on each side and press for a nice crease.

Now fold over another half an inch so that is enclosed, and press again.
Unfold so that you have only one fold on all sides.

At each corner, make a mark like so, keeping it at a right angle and not going over the folded edges.

Fold your napkin at the corner, right sides together, so that you can see the marking on one side.

Sew along that line, and trim the excess. Repeat for all four corners.

When you turn this out, you will have a perfect mitered corner! Pin these edges down.

Sew along this edge about 1/8” from the fold for a lovely finish.

Now, fold as desired and add them to your gorgeous Holiday tablescape. Add some greenery and your favorite festive dishes for a welcoming holiday scene!