Message Boards

Tried some Christmas projects with burlap this year-AND I will never do this again. I find this stuff extrememy hard to work with. Maybe there is something I don't know. I made bows for door wreaths, a square on a pillow, a small letter garland, and still have about 1/2 yard left..Anyone have success stories to post, or any secret to disclose as to make it easier to use? Only thing I am going to attempt to do with the rest is to wrapmy paperwhite pots, but I plant them to bloom in January. The above mentioned Christmas projects are staying up, but don't look as good as I wanted them to.

I also think that burlap is hard to work with. It is a very loosely woven fabric, so it comes apart easily, and it is scratchy, and it makes me sneeze. The less detailed the work, when it comes to burlap, the better. Probably wrapping your pots will go better than the other projects did. My only thing to disclose is that they make ribbon that looks like burlap, and that would be easier for making bows than strips of actual burlap.

Last year I tried doing a project with burlap -- the left over burlap I had from wrapping my newly planted exterior evergreens for the winter.

It was not until I was finished that I realized the burlap for plants and the decorator burlap bought at a fabric store are two different weaves -- take a look at how big the weave is -- this is a picture with wood letters glued to the front of the glass. Under the glass is a layer of Christmas wrapping paper and a layer of the burlap. From afar you cannot even discern the burlap -- it just mutes the colors of the wrapping paper. But I kept it anyways.

http://www.craftaholicsanonymo...-burlap-straight-and

The above link offers several helpful tips regarding working with burlap.

quote:

Originally posted by MyLifeVacation1:
the burlap for plants and the decorator burlap bought at a fabric store are two different weaves

Exactly, and also the decorator burlap does not smell like the raw burlap. I made some runners from the decorator burlap I had left from a project years ago (I think I originally used it for picture mats decades ago) and they don't smell. However some burlap coffee bags I bought recently do have a burlap odor as well as a coffee odor. I've washed them which has reduced that somewhat.

Burlap, no matter what kind does fray tho so really should be serged or zig-zagged. I just frayed the runners and am careful with them.

quote:

Originally posted by homebody4:
Anyone have success stories to post, or any secret to disclose as to make it easier to use?

The decorator burlap is a bit stiff so I think if one were to wash, then starch the raw burlap it might be easier to work with. Also, as I mentioned above, in some projects one could serge the edges so they don't fray.

Lucky, check out the link I provided above. They address the fray issue w/ pics among other problems dealing with burlap.

quote:

Originally posted by Froo Froo:
Lucky, check out the link I provided above. They address the fray issue w/ pics among other problems dealing with burlap.

Froo, I cannot see where she addresses the issue of fraying on that blog. Can you post that? She gives detailed instructions in cutting altho that's not difficult even without pulling a thread. I just followed one thread to cut evenly. I'm sure one could use Fraycheck or serge or zigzag edges as I mentioned previously.

My daughter got married a few weeks ago. She had ordered a 100 foot by 1 foot roll of burlap. We used it to make the table runners. We did them so quickly . We just cut them , and then I "pigtailed" the ends and tied them with twine. They looked great.

The florist actually bought them from us because they rent them to others! The ends were just blunt cut with no fraying.

quote:

I "pigtailed" the ends and tied them with twine. They looked great.

What does this mean? Do you have any pics?

Actually the smell of burlap is one of my favorite smells (along with tar, denim, leather)

Many, many years ago, I made a wreath out of burlap. Must have gotten the directions from either Oh, those inexpensive magazines for sale at the check out counter, can't remember the names but decorating. Anyway it was a nightmare to do, basically just fringing. But it came out fine.

LOS, I don't know if I used the correct term. I just loosely gathered it in my fingers and and tied it.

I have wedding pics but I do not know how to post them from one site to here! I will see what I can o

I decided to make window panels from burlap and it was much more difficult than I imagined. The fabric made me wheezy out the gate and by the end of my cutting, my lungs hurt. I measured, leaving lots of extra fabric for header and fringe at the bottom, then washed and dried the burlap. Wow, did it shrink. I barely had enough fabric to make the panels. They turned out OK, just not as nice looking as I pictured them in my head. The third photo down on this post shows the panels.

http://alwaysnesting.blogspot....12/be-our-guest.html