How to Cut Burlap

Burlap – it’s all the rage right now! You can make it look rustic or elegant, it’s inexpensive and …. it’s a mess! =] Really, it is! When I cut my burlap I go on my back porch because I don’t like all the fibers, dust, shreds, whatever you want to call the shards floating around.

Have you ever tried to cut burlap and thought that your line was straight only to find out that it’s super crooked? I have!
I discovered a trick that’s going to save you lots of time (and burlap)!

Listen up:

When you buy your burlap the selvage (ends) will probably by sewn down the sides like this…

See that white thread going up the burlap? Go ahead and cut that off. Cut as close to that line as possible. (In the picture above, I would cut to the right of the white thread because I want to cut that end piece off.)

Then, measure over a couple of threads (burlap threads) and pull it until it starts to bunch. (I wouldn’t measure the actual piece of burlap you want just yet, go ahead and just take the second or third thread so that you can make sure your burlap is straight from the beginning.)

It will look like this…

(I was actually measuring the strip of burlap that I needed, but pretend I pulled the second thread over.) You are going to pull on this thread BUT DON’T PULL TOO HARD because the thread WILL break off. Ask me how I know that. =] The burlap will start to bunch and you’ll just have to flatten/pull where it is bunching and keep pulling the thread…

Once you have completely pulled out that string you will be left with a runway like this…

TA DA! Now you have an actual guide to cut down! =]

I made this flower with my strip of burlap…

To be honest, it was pretty difficult to make so I’m not going to do a tutorial on it. It’s not exactly what I wanted, but it’s an idea. I want to make really big flowers (out of burlap, I thought) to put in the center of my curtain tie backs. Kind of like this…

Picture taken from here.

… but one BIG flower in the center. Any burlap flower making suggestions anyone? =]