Repurposed Curtain Panel to Grain Sack Table Runner

When I was about 8 years old and I visited my grandparents, which was quite often, they had one movie I was obsessed with in their collection that I always popped into the VCR to sing along with at the top of my lungs (not very well but I tried): The Sound of Music.

I loved Julie Andrews.  I was captivated by her.  And in that one part when she fashioned the Von Trapp children's playclothes out of drapes, I thought she was absolutely brilliant. (She totally did it herself.  No screen writing or movie costume department or anything.)

So when trying to get creative with some old curtain panels I had lying around, I was so excited to figure out how I could put them to good use for Thanksgiving this year.

I don't have 7 children to clothe or anything (Thank God!), but I will have 3 or 4 plain tables to do a little something with.  I just didn't want to spend anything to beautify them.  

So I resorted to going Fraulein Maria on a few plain cotton curtain panels sitting in storage just waiting for the perfect project.  

First rule of decorating on the cheap: never throw out scrap fabric or wood. Second rule of decorating on the cheap: never even talk about throwing out scrap fabric or wood.

(Impossible to reference The Sound of Music and Fight Club in the same post? Checkmate, my friend.)

Here is all I needed:

• Curtain panel
• Scissors
• Pins
• Hot glue gun and glue sticks
• Iron
• Painter's tape
• Craft paint
• Sponge brush or large artist brush

 And, thankfully, I already had all of it in my craft stash.  Free projects rock!

All I had to do was cut off the tabs of the curtain panel.

And I cut the panel right down the middle to be 16 inches wide.  If the panels were longer I would have put them over a bare window, which our upstairs is still sporting from moving in, but they were only 6 feet long.  I'm a floor to ceiling curtain kinda gal.

From here, I followed my tried and true no-sew curtain method.  I have a serious needle and thread phobia...a sewing machine makes me run screaming.  Since three of the seams were already there, I only had to pin under the one raw edge.

(Pardon my photos here.  I wrapped up this project after dark...curses, Daylight Savings Time!)

I ironed the pinned "seam" first to get a nice, crisp edge.  Then, removing one pin at a time, I swiped on a line of hot glue under the seam.

I wanted to try out a French grain sack look, so I used painter's tape to create a stencil for stripes.

Then, I just pounced on top of the taped fabric with a sponge brush.  I stuck with red so that I could use the runners for fall and on through Christmas.

Once the paint was dry, and I peeled up the tape, that was it!  Really easy and it would have been much faster if I didn't have a toddler under foot.  She even helped with painting the stripes and spacey me forgot to snap a photo.  It was way too cute to handle. ;)

I have a couple more to make, but the great thing is one panel can make two table runners, so none of the fabric goes to waste.

I'm loving how it turned out for yesterday's Dollar Store Thanksgiving Tablescape.  My efforts to keep our decor at costing next to nothing almost seems pathetic...almost.  

And hey, if a two year-old could handle it, there's nothing stopping you.  

Blessings,

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