Here’s an easy Spring table runner idea! Use a solid piece of fabric and a cute stripe as your border and, Voila! …. Now for those mitered corners :) Let me show you what I did to get each corner to match and give it that real picture frame look. You could do this same process on a larger quilt to add a lot of drama and that wow factor.
I cut an 11” wide strip of solid white fabric and trimmed the selvages off. Then, I cut five 4.5” wide strips of striped fabric.
Mark each corner of the white strip with a erasable pen ¼” in from each edge.
Take one of the striped strips and cut it in half. Center each half across the short ends of the white strip and adjust to where you like the stripe arrangement, at what will be the corners. I decided I wanted my corners to be very colorful, so I centered the strip in such a way the lime green was hanging off each end to be mitered. Since the strip is 4.5” wide, you need at least that much extra on the ends for those miters. Put a pen mark where the border extends past the white fabric.
Lay the next border strip down the length of the white strip. Adjust the strip until the corner stripes match, and put a pen mark on this border where the edge of the white strip ends.
Now, lay those two striped borders together making sure your stripes do indeed match each other. Clip a tiny slit right at the pen marks.
Pin the short border ends to the white strip, between the clip marks. Stitch from one dot mark to the other, backstitching a little at each end.
Press that first border out, and lay the side border on at the corner, matching the clip to the end of the strip. Pin in place and stitch, starting at the dot and sewing about ten inches before leaving the rest of the strip detached. Set each of the corners up this way with their matching corner stripes and semi-detached strips between corners.
Now lay the border strips out coming from each corner to meet in the middle. Overlap the strips ½” and cut the excess off.
Sew the two strip ends together, and press the seam out. Pin the strip to the white and stitch between the partial seams that were sewn before. Striped fabric is really good at hiding seams so no one will ever know!
Working at the ironing board, take each corner one at a time and fold one tail-end of the border strip under to meet the border going down the next side. Adjust the stripes at the corner till they meet, and press them in place with a good crease. Use painters tape to make sure nothing moves and all those stripes stay right where you left them!
Open up the crease, and gently fold it back making sure the tape doesn't come loose. Sew from the inside corner to the outside corner right down that crease.
Cut the seam down to ¼”. Press open.
Repeat this process with all four corners. Don’t be discouraged if the first three corners don’t turn out ;) this takes a little finesse sometimes. You’ll get it, I promise!
Happy Spring, everyone! I hope this inspires you!
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