Elderly Care Activities: Simple Applique Table Runner

Elderly Care in Franklinton, NC

Keeping your aging loved ones active and involved in your holiday celebrations is an important part of keeping them feeling relevant and acknowledged during this special time of year. This is especially important if your aging parents have recently begun an elderly care journey and are coping with limitations or challenges that make it more difficult for them to handle the contributions to the holiday celebrations that they have always been accustomed to making.

Seniors who have always prepared part of the feast, decorated the home beautifully, or hosted specific activities may suffer depression, anxiety, and loss of motivation when they realize that they will not be able to do these things anymore, and may even become angry and stop cooperating with their care. By taking the time to acknowledge that they are still very important members of the family who make valuable contributions to the celebration of the holiday season, you can boost their spirits, protect their health, and help them to be a part of holiday memories that you will treasure well into the future.

One way that you can encourage your parents to contribute to holiday celebrations is by having them do fun, simple crafts that you can then use to decorate the home. Whether they do them with you or with their referred caregiver as an element of their ongoing elderly care routine, doing these crafts stimulates their minds, encourages creativity and expression, and gives them a sense of accomplishment and importance when they are able to see the finished product used as part of the holiday decorative approach.

This craft is for a fast and easy table runner you can use for the main table, the buffet, or a side table to add some harvest flair and a personal touch to the home. It uses iron-on fusible webbing to eliminate the sewing elements of traditional applique for a faster, less complicated technique.

What You’ll Need

• High quality cream or ivory cotton fabric
• High quality green cotton fabric
• High quality orange cotton fabric
• High quality brown cotton fabric
• High quality red cotton fabric
• Iron-on fusible material
• Fabric scissors
• Fabric marker
• Autumn leaves stencil
• Iron
• Sewing pins
• Yard stick or measuring tape
• Serger

What to Do

• Measure the table that you want to put the runner on. Make sure that you take into consideration the overhang of the runner by adding twelve inches to either end of the measurement
• Cut a length of the cream or ivory fabric that is this measurement by eighteen inches. If you are putting the runner on a smaller table, you can adjust the width and the length of the overhang, but you will also need to adjust the decorative appliques to account for the smaller size
• Use the serger to create a finished edge all the way around the entire edge of the fabric. You can use cream or ivory thread for a subtle finish, or green, orange, or brown for a pop of color that ties in with the decorations on the ends
• Use the autumn leaves stencil to trace a variety of leaves and acorns on the colored fabrics using the fabric marker. If you cannot find a stencil you can make your own by printing out your desired shapes, tracing them onto a piece of cardboard, and then cutting it out using a craft knife
• Cut out your shapes and serge for a finished edge if desired
• Apply the fusible webbing onto the back of each shape. This is a material you can purchase at any fabric store that applies to the back of fabric and allows it to be attached to another piece of fabric with heat
• Arrange your shapes on the ends of the runner. Use the sewing pins to hold the different shapes in place so you can evaluate the design and make changes as desired
• Use the iron to fuse the shapes into place, removing the pins as you go to prevent staining.