I have 20 60 in. round tables that I would like to have runners for. I would like to make them myself unless I could find them cheaper to buy. My dilemma is how much material is needed and where online is the best site to purchase it. Any suggestions will be appreciated.
Simple enough answer, after you ask yourself a few questions. How wide do you want the runners to be? Are they to be all one fabric or are you planning to use some kind of pieced pattern on them? Do you want them to go completely across the tables, hang over the edge, or not go across the tables completely.
Most fabric stores sell flat fold fabrics inexpensively and they are usually in 56" widths; most are decorator fabrics. Regular decorator fabric also comes in 56" widths.
If you don't have the runners go across the tables completety, you can get three 10" runners per yard of fabric. You just divide 36" by the width of the runner you would like to have to get how many you can get from a one yard cut. The length is a given (about 54" after you put in hems) if you use the decorator fabrics.
Many placemats are only 12" wide so to give you an idea of how that would look, put one on a table and see what you think of that width. Would you like it larger or smaller?
If you want the runners to hang over the edges, you figure 20 tables times the length you want the runner. Then divide that by the number of runners you can get from the fabric width. Let's say you have a 5" overhang on each edge, that would make the length of the runner 70" plus 1 1/2" for the hems or 71 1/2". So 20 x 71.5 = 1430" or approximately 40 yds of fabric. BUT you divide that by the number of runners you can get from the width of the fabric. With decorator fabric that would be 56". At 13 1/2" (12" finished width of the runner plus 1 1/2" for hems) per runner; that would give you enough fabric to do four runners. Now divide the 40 yds of fabric by 4 and you will need 10 yds of fabric.
I came across a really great site called Measure4Measure.com. It has so many ways to calculate almost everything. Scroll down almost to the bottom of the page where it says yardage calculating. It even shows you how your name looks translated into Japanese. I thought that was kinda cool. It has every calendar calculation imaginable. Have fun just looking at all the things this site has to offer. ~Janette~
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