Velvet is a rich, warm fabric for the cold winter months. It is traditionally associated with Christmas, especially in its many hues of reds and greens. This table runner project of embossed velvet is a perfect addition to your table this Christmas season. At first glance, everyone will notice it's traditional beauty, but when you tell them you've embossed it yourself, they will think it's truly a Christmas miracle. Join us as we make this beautiful hand embossed, velvet table runner on this month's Crafty Chic.
 

By Lori Garcia, editor-in-chief

DEGREE OF DIFFICULTY Embossing: easy, Sewing: intermediate PREP TIME 2 1/2 - 3 hours EXPENSES $15-20 WHAT YOU'LL NEED 1 yard (or so to fit your table) acetate velvet rubberstamp (You need a very durable one that can withstand heat. We used a midgrade one. (see notes below) If you want a really good one, see www.hotpotatoes.com whose stamps are made especially for embossing.) iron spray bottle to spiritz water on fabric (I recycled an old Downy Wrinkle Releaser bottle and filled it with water.) thread, cording, and other sewing notions to taste   STEP BY STEP 1. Place rubberstamp on a flat surface with rubber part facing up. (Note, to get better results, you'll want to use a larger stamp with fewer fine details. Also, make sure the stamp can stand up to the heat of a hot iron. We stamped an entire yard of fabric with a lot of coverage. After an hour and a half, the glue from the rubberstamp started to lose its hold and caused the rubber to slide around on the wood block. We could still continue, but we had to be careful. If you want heavy-duty rubber stamps, you might want to check out the following website that sells rubberstamps just for that purpose: www.hotpotatoes.com) 2. Place the velvet right-side down so that the good side is facing the rubberstamp and the backside is facing you (up). * Note, it's important to use real acetate velvet and not velvetine or a substitute. 3. Using the water bottle, spritz the fabric (the wrong-side) lightly to moisten it. 4. Place a heated iron directly on top of the fabric and count to five, applying light pressure. *Note, make sure that you have the iron on the highest setting WITHOUT steam. ALSO, make sure that you place the iron so that the holes are not directly on top of your rubberstamp. The holes will leave their own embossing! 5. Remove the iron and pick up the fabric to see the embossing you've created. 6. Continue to emboss as much of the fabric as you want. It took us two hours to do a yard of fabric. You can choose to emboss a pattern rotating the stamp ever which way, in rows, or along an edge for added detail. 7. Measure the length of the table you want to make the runner. Add 10-15 inches extra so that the runner falls nicely over each side of the table. We cut our fabric 65 inches long and15 inches wide. Our fabric wasn't long enough for our table, so we had to make a seam down the middle of runner along the width. We weren't too concern with the seam, because we had plans to cover the middle of the runner with a large candle/pinecone centerpiece. 8. Hem the runner all the way around about 1/4 inch. 9. Turn the ends of the runner in to a point (you will tack these down later by hand.) 10. If you like cording, pin it along the underside of the hem you just created. Sew the cording on by machine, or do a slip stitch by hand. We did ours by machine, or courselazy ole me! 11. The final touches? Tack the corners of each end down as mentioned before. Hand stitch the tassles to the end of the runner for a completed look.