diy cheesecloth wedding table runners

 

UPDATE*** – you can see how these looked at my wedding here – https://www.wordsareforwriters.com/boho-michigan-wedding/

 

i first found these boho table runners on pinterest (obviously, where all my inspo is from) which brought me to the shop on etsy. i’m sure you’ve seen this shop before! they make amazinggggg table runners! their reviews are so great and their photos are perfect. originally, i was going to buy our table runners from this shop because i trusted them and they were exactly what i envisioned.

after budgeting and figuring out how much money we had to spend on decor, these table runners were way over what i wanted to spend. if you know me, you know i’m a sucker for a good diy project! and just because i couldn’t buy these, didn’t mean i couldn’t have them. so! i did some research and figured out that these weren’t actually as hard to make them as i thought they would be.

if you’ve got a few hours, they are totally doable! so, let’s get started.

what you will need

• yards of cheesecloth (i got 100 yds from amazon and used 90 grade linked here)
• rit dye (their website is great at helping you find the right colors)
• buckets for water
• scissors/measuring tape to measure/cut the cheesecloth
• racks to hang the cheesecloth for drying

measure and cut

i had two friends help me make these, which was a blessing! it made the time go by fast and having the extra hands made everything a lot easier. the first step is to measure and cut! you’ll want to figure out how big your tables are and make sure you add a few feet to the edges so that it hangs over.

for our wedding, we will have 8ft farmhouse tables – so we cut each table runner to be about 12ft. this way it hangs over the edge a good amount! i bought around 100yds of fabric and we were able to make around 20 table runners all together.

by measuring and cutting the fabric first, it makes the process so much easier! i saw a few tutorials where they dyed the fabric first, but if you know how big your tables are already, it’s just easier to do this first.

make your dye

the rit website has every color you could dream of and they tell you exactly how much dye you need and how much water you need. i used an old tupperware container that had christmas decor in it to hold my water and mix the dye. depending on how big your table runners are, you might even be able to use just buckets.

the rit website gave us measurements for 3 gallons of water, but since our container was so big, we ended up using 3 times the dye recipe. so we had 9 gallons of water. the color i used is here on their website. we just used room temperature water and it seemed to work just fine.

dying your table runners

cheesecloth soaks up the water and dye SO fast. like, SO fast. depending on what shade of grey you want, that will decide how long you leave it in the dye. we made two colors! the first color is super dark grey, which i kind of like! i think i’m going to go back and make more of this color, but this just happened to our first runner as we were testing out the color. we left this in the dye for more than 15 minutes, but if you leave it in the dye for around 10-15, i think you’ll get this dark shade.

for the lighter color (the color i desired), i literally dipped it in the dye for 0.2 seconds, took it out, squeezed the water out, and hung it up to dry. that’s it! super quick, super easy. i would cut a few pieces of cheesecloth to test out and see how long you want to leave it in the dye. depending on the color and shade you want! overall, i’m really happy with the way these turned out.

the darker color here ^ our test one

the lighter/desired/final color ^

drying your table runners

in a few tutorials i saw people using their dryers to dry them, but i just hung them all up on a drying rack and in my bathroom and that worked just fine! i live in an apartment complex, so it would have cost me money to use the dryers. i hung them up, let them dry over night, and they were good to go the next morning!

conclusion

the hardest part about making these was making sure i found the color i wanted and dyed them the correct shade. but if you aren’t confident in your dying skills, testing a few pieces first will make sure you get the color perfect!

all in all, it took me around $140 to make these myself – whereas, if i would have purchased them, it would have cost around $600. so i saved a ton of money! plus, they were a lot of fun to make. i love craft projects and if you’ve got a few friends who are willing to help, it can turn into a fun afternoon!

if you have any questions at all, feel free to leave them below or message me on instagram!

 

xo,

 

 

courtney raf