I love Paris!

OOH LA LA!!

Ok, I have a confession, I've never actually BEEN to Paris but this does not in any way stop me from loving the idea of Paris. More to the point, I love the concept of French provincial cottages and countrysides, the romance of Paris at night, the thought of all the cafe's, artists, and history that adorn gay Paris like strands of pearls. Alas, I am starting to get a little overly poetic here so I'll stop. Point being, I love adding little flairs of that romantic feel to my home when and where I can so when I saw this great muslin table runner I knew I needed to have something similar. With the winter holidays upon us, my diningroom table was begging for a change of color and the soft white of muslin just called to me. I had some fabric left over after making my own lightbox (more on that in some future post) so I grabbed up what I had, all set to make a glorious runner that would flow off the ends of the table.



This did not turn out quite as I imagined though as I quickly found I had too little fabric to drape off the ends. I measured out what I had and discovered that I could at least get a nice center piece that would almost reach each end so it would have to work. I did a quick job of sewing up the ends, doubling up my fabric so that it would have a little more substance to it, and left the hems untreated as I kind of like the rustic look of it.

Then it was time to add the letters. Well, in the post I mentioned above, the lovely artist in question simply used t-shirt transfer paper, which would have worked fine if I'd had any on hand...sadly I did not. As things are tight right now, I couldn't bring myself to run out and buy some just for this one project so I had to find another option. I scoured the internet looking for answers and saw everything from citrus solvents to printable fabric but nothing that I could do right then and there. Finally I came across this genius. Know what she used? A light box and a Sharpie. Yeah. So, feeling silly for not having thought about that option in the first place, I set about hunting down a nice image I could use. I found one on-line for a little cafe and thought that would work well. I cleaned up the writing and this is what I had left:

I just printed it out, put it on my light box and then traced the letters right onto the fabric. Didn't take more than a few minutes and it makes the whole table feel so much lighter. It goes great with the little dollar store votive holders I made and I tossed a few jingle bells in each one to give a little shine when the candles are lit. My German windmill sits in the center of it all. Please forgive the complete lack of ironing I did but mine died a horrible death and every time I attempted to use it, it would attempt to kill me by burning holes in things.

Anyway, I hope you like my runner regardless. :) Happy holidays and happy crafting!


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