This project was definitely inspired by necessity… The need for affordable linens for our wedding.  I’ve already shared that our wedding theme will be rustic chic and we are embracing it wholeheartedly.  Burlap and lace are going to be all over the place (lol) so why not include some DIY Burlap Overlays. Easy to make and less than $7.00 per 48″ square overlay, this wedding DIY project has become one of my favorites.

Our venue provides ivory or white floor length table linens, but alone that seems a little plain.  I love this inspirational photo with the burlap overlays from Pinterest, but I feel like it still needs something to spice this up a bit…so I decided to use some navy blue burlap ribbon as a border.

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Step One: buy burlap fabric.  Obvious, lol, but I say this because there are many, many choices of burlap.  Color, style, printed…the list goes on.  For this project I waited for JoAnn to have a sale reducing the price of burlap from $3.99 / yd to $1.99 per yard.  Each overlay is 48″ square so that’s just over a yard each since the fabric is also 48″ wide.

The next step was to cut out a lot of 48″ squares.  Cutting burlap is soooo easy.  Snip the edge at the desired measurement, pull out a string at that spot and then you have a pre-made “line” or gap to cut along.

I didn’t want simple, burlap-only overlays so I decided to add some trim that I found on sale at Walmart.  My local Walmart still carries some sewing supplies, which is where I found this burlap ribbon. It happens to be wired, but wired ribbon isn’t really necessary.

I cut the ribbon for the two opposite sides first.  I wanted to sew the raw edge under so I cut the ribbon at 50″ for two sides and 51″ for the other two opposite sides to allow enough extra length on each end to fold under for a clean, finished look.

After pinning the ribbon to the burlap, I sewed a zig-zag stitch along the raw edge of the burlap. This prevents the burlap from unraveling under the edge of the ribbon. I sewed another zig-zag stitch on the edge of the ribbon securing it to the burlap completely. Last I folded under the edge of the ribbon and stitched it in place.

It looks kinda messy, but that’s the bottom side, so it won’t be seen.  I also hadn’t cut off the excess thread in the picture above, so that adds to some of the mess.

I repeated the above steps for all 4 sides to complete the border.  From start to finish, one overlay took me about 20 minutes…unfortunately, I have about 9 more to go. 🙂