DIY: Chair Runners

I am not sure if these are actually classified as chair runners or not, but that's what I am calling them. Also, the title to this post would be much too long if I were to say DIY: some cute hand embroidered fabric to drape on the back of your chairs to spice things up a bit.

So with that, this is how I made my chair runners...

I used a cotton blend, cut out my desired sizes and hemmed them; then I used RIT dye to color them. I've used this dye one of two ways; washing machine for larger projects (be careful with this way because you'll end up throwing a bunch of other stuff in there too, like, hey maybe this would look good that color...) and by using my dyeing pot and boiling water on the stove top.

I've found that either way work fine, you just want to make sure the dye is completely diluted before you put in your fabric, then stir, stir, stir!

For my embroidery floss I chose some vibrant colors; I had the cocktail napkins that I made for the sisters in mind when picking these out.

For the embroidery pattern, I just free stitched some little geometric shapes. Be careful you don't have any issues like this one (still not sure how I managed this predicament).

There you have it, a simple chair runner (?) to adorn your sitting area with a bit of extra color and flare. I added tassels to the corners, however may go back and add more all along the bottom hem.

Also, because of the fabric and size, if I wanted to retire them from the living room they could quickly double as tea towels. You need to always think about the duality of DIY.