Fan Fold Ruffle Pillow

I have one designer that I do a lot of work for in the LA area and she always has cute little details she has me add to her projects.  Fan Fold Ruffles are definitely one of her favorites!  So, In honor of her today I'm sharing a Fan Fold Ruffle Pillow.

Isn't she cute!  Follow along as I share how to make this pillow.
What you'll need:
1 yard of 54" wide home decor fabric
2 yards of cotton cording
1 matching zipper
1 pillow fill that is 1" bigger than your finished pillow size

Decisions need to made first.  What size pillow are you gonna make?  How big do you want your fan fold ruffle to be? 
I made my pillow 20" wide x 15" tall and I made my ruffle 1 1/2".  Adjust your cutting according to your pillow and ruffle size.

I cut 1 @ 21"x16" ( cut 1" bigger than your finished pillow size)
  cut 1 @ 22"x17"(I always cut my back piece 1" bigger than the front)
  cut 4 @ width of fabric(54)x4"  (you will need at least 3 times fullness for your ruffle)
  cut bias strips to equal the circumference of my pillow.  You will find those instructions here
http://sew-passionate.blogspot.com/search/label/Welt%20Cord

Serge or zig zag the bottom edges of your pillow front and back to keep them from unraveling.  This keeps loose fabric threads from get caught up in the zipper.

Cover your cotton cord with your bias strips, refer to link above if needed.

When I'm adding a ruffle or trim to a pillow, I always round the corners of the pillow.  The ruffles just don't look right if you keep those corners perfectly square.  I have a little plastic jar that I keep next to my sewing machine that is the perfect size for rounding those corners.

I just use a pencil or pen to trace around the circle.  Once you have traced your circle on all 4 corners, you are ready to attach the welt cord to your pillow.  Find the center bottom of your pillow and start your welt cord 1/2" before that mark.  But start stitching 1/2" from the welts edge.  This allows a 1/2" for for overlapping the raw edges of your welt.

Using a zipper foot, stitch your welt to the right side of your pillow.  When you arrive at the corners, snip into the welt seam allowance 4 times approx. 3/4 apart.  This will allow the welt to bend around those corners smoothly.

When you've stitched all around your pillow and you are almost at your starting point, stop stitching with your needle down approx. 2-2 1/2" from your starting point.  With you welt cord overlapping your starting welt, Cut the welt approx. 1" past the starting point.  Now using small scissors or a seam ripper open up your end piece of welt.

Fold up a 1/2" of the bias fabric like you see above and lay it under your starting cord by about 1/2"

.Now cut the actual cotton cord so that it butts up against the starting welt cord.

Fold the fabric bias strip over the beginning edge of your welt and finish stitching the last 2" or so.

Now we need to prepare your ruffle pieces for attaching them to your pillow.  Stitch your 4 strips together.

Trim the seam allowances to 1/4" and press the seams open.  Fold the ruffle in half lengthwise and press.  Pin every 8" or so.

This next step usually takes me about 40 min. so I usually do it while I'm watching TV in a comfortable chair.  Fold in your fan fold pleats and pin each one to your pillow front.  I folded mine about 1/2", but you can make yours whatever size you want.  Pin in a few and step back and look at it to decide if you like the size and distance of your fan folds.

Continue to fold and pin all around your pillow front.  Don't scrimp at the corners because the ruffle needs fullness there to bend around the corner nicely.  Try to hide the seams of your ruffle along a fold of the fan.

When you get the center bottom where you started pinning your ruffle,  pint our last fold to butt up right against your first fan fold.  Overlap the ruffle to form the back of the last fan fold and add 1/4" seam allowance and trim away excess ruffle.

Unpin a couple folds and open ruffle out and pin the 2 ends right sides together and stitch using a 1/4" seam allowance.  Finger press seam open and re-pin folds to pillow.

I find it easier to stitch the fan fold ruffle to the pillow front with the ruffle on the bottom.  Otherwise my presser foot gets caught up on folds. Use a zipper foot and stitch slightly beyond the stitching that attached your welt cord.   Check the front side of your pillow and make sure your fan folds are all laying nice.

Inserting a zipper-  I have shown how to insert a zipper in this tutorial  http://sew-passionate.blogspot.com/2011/12/how-to-sew-basic-pillow.html    Follow the zipper part of that link and when you have your zipper attached to the back piece of your pillow, come back here and follow along to finish your pillow.

With the front of your pillow right side up, lay the back of your pillow face down along the bottom edge.  Extend your back piece 1/2" past the pillow front.  Make sure the zipper flap is pushed back away from your zipper.  Align your zipper teeth with the ruffle stitching and stitch close to the zipper teeth making sure you don't stitch into the welt.

When you get to the zipper slide, stop with the needle down in your fabric and lift the presser foot.  I use a flat head screw driver to push the slide back to behind my presser foot.  This way your stitching doesn't get crooked trying to go around it.

Now that you've stitched the bottom edge with the zipper, push the zipper flap back over the zipper butting it up against the seam.

Lay the front back down on the back, right sides together still and begin stitching before the curve of the bottom left corner.

Continue stitching up the left side, across the top and back down the right side of the pillow stopping just beyond the corner of the right side bottom corner.

Trim the corners and the excess off the sides and top of the back pillow piece.

Turn your pillow over and push the zipper slide to open up the pillow.

Turn your pillow right side out and give it a good pressing before you stuff it with your fill.

So cute and such a neat detail to add to pillows.

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Easy Bias Strips and Covered Welt Cord

I'm dieing to to share all kinds of cute sewing tutorials!  But a lot of them require welt cord, so I thought this would be a good time to show how to cut bias strips and cover welt cord.  I know some people can be intimidated and confused by bias strips, but they really are easy once you do it once or twice.  If you're a quilter you probably already know how to cut bias strips for the binding around quilts.  If you have no idea what welt cord is, here's a picture.

Welt cord is simply a cotton filler cord, covered with bias strips of fabric.  This is what the cord looks like before it is covered with fabric.

The cotton cording comes in different sizes.  Today we are covering size 5/32.  This is the standard size I use on  most of my projects.  Really big sizes can be used around pillows and shams however I do not recommend a beginner sewer to start out with the large sizes.
Cording is always covered with fabric cut on the bias(diagonally) of the fabric.  Some upholsterers cut it on the straight grain, but it does not lay as nicely especially around curves.

I cut my bias strips at a 45 degree angle to the selvage.  I have a clear ruler with a 45 degree line on it that makes this easy to figure out.  I think I bought this ruler at JoAnns.

Start by laying your fabric out on a flat surface and lining up the 45 degree line with the selvage.

Using a marking pen I draw along the straight edge of my ruler.  Then using a longer ruler I finish drawing the line across the width of my fabric.

Now you have a line across the bias (diagonally) of your fabric.  Using scissors, cut along this line.
To make it faster and easier to handle our large piece of fabric, fold it into thirds as shown below keeping the bias edge lined up.

This is what your fabric will end up looking like if you folded it correctly.

There's 2 ways to cut bias strips, depending on the sewing tools you own.  Method 1 will show if you plan on cutting them out with scissors.  Method 2 will be if you own a rotary cutter and self healing rotary mat.

Method 1-  Using the same clear ruler I draw lines parallel to my bias edge.  For my 5/32 cotton welt I already know my bias strips need to be cut at 1 5/8" wide.  If your cotton welt cord is a different size you might have to adjust your bias strip width slightly.

Cut along this line with your scissors before drawing the next line because sometimes the fabric shifts a little during cutting and this will give you a chance to straighten it up before you draw the line for the next bias strip.  Continue to cut as many bias strips as you think you will need for your project.

Method 2-With your fabric still folded into thirds, lay it on your cutting mat lining the bias edge up with the straight edge of your mat.

Place the edge of your ruler 1 5/8" past the edge of your bias edge.  Then using your rotary cutter, cut along this edge.  Again, cut as many bias strips as your project requires.

That wasn't so hard was it?  Time to sew these strips together now.  Head on over to your sewing machine.  I use my Singer Industrial machine when sewing bias strips because it sews a lot faster and because it has cording feet attachments.  I'll show you those in a little bit.  First we have to master how to stitch these long bias strips together.

With the right side of the fabric up, lay one of your strips on your sewing area and another strip face down right above it like this.

Now pivot the top one slightly and line up the diagonal edges. Like this.

See the "V" the two pieces of fabric form at the top and the bottom?  This is where you will begin and end your seam. 

When you get to the bottom "V" you see in the picture above, leave your needle down in your fabric.

Here's a time saving sewing tip to make sewing endless amounts of bias strips much faster....Your strip that is on top at this point is right side down, find the other end and turn it right side up and place it near your presser foot.  Then take the next strip and lay it face down on top of it like you did with your first 2 strips.

Lift your presser foot and slide the top "V" right up near the needle and continue to stitch along this one like you did the first one. Continue adding bias strips like this until they are all sewn together.  There will be a thread train between them and you can cut the thread train when you are all finished.  It would take forever to sew each edge, pull it from the machine and clip the thread and then re-align the next strip for sewing.  Geesh, I get tired just thinking about doing it that way.

 When you're finished sewing all your bias strips together and you clipped the thread trains holding them together, you are ready to cover your cotton filler cord.

As I mentioned, my industrial machine has cording feet that I can attach to the machine that make covering welt really easy.  I know they can be ordered for most home sewing machines, so if you think you will be sewing a lot of projects that require welt cord, it might be worth it to invest in one of these cording feet.

If you don't have a cording foot for your machine, you can use your zipper foot to sew right along the welt.  Like this.

But I definitely prefer to use my cording foot like this.

Whichever sewing foot you use, start out with the wrong side of your bias strip facing up.  Put the cotton cord in the center.

Fold the fabric over the cord making sure the long edges meet up to form an even 1/2" seam allowance.
Stitch next to the cord, without running over the cord with your needle.  Actually you don't want to stitch too close to the cord because that stitching will show on your finished project.  You just want it to be comfortably close.  When you stitch your cording to your project seams, you can then stitch closer to the welt cord and none of your original stitching will show on the outside of your finished project.

When you get to a seam, finger press the seam open and continue.

I hope that wasn't too hard!  I hope I was able to give clear instructions.  Now what are you going to do with all your welt cord?  Cushions?  Pillow?  Slipcover?  I'd love to hear what you end up adding your  welt cord to!! Pin It

Easy Pillow with Rope Button

I'm changing pillows out around my house again.  I do this often!!  As my mood changes so do the pillows around my house.  For the last 2 weeks we've had spring like weather here in Southern California, yep in January we are in the 70's.  It has me thinking about summer and the beach and so it's time to make some summer inspired pillows.

This one is really easy.

  This pillow is 20"x20" when finished.

What you'll need: 1 yd of fabric, matching zipper, 20" pillow fill and a large button (or you could make this one) I've given the link on how to make this one towards the end of this post.

For the front you will need to cut 1 piece @ 21"x9"  for the top flap(1)

                                                  1 piece @ 21"x 16" for the bottom half(2)

                                                  1 piece @ 21"x2 1/4" for the facing(3)

                                                  1 piece @ 8"x1 1/2" for the button loop(4)

For the back you will need to cut 1 piece @ 22"x22"(5)

Press the loop piece(4) in fourths lengthwise, first by pressing in half.

Then press the long edges again up to the fold line.

Then fold at original pressing fold and pin.

Set this aside for a minute, since we're at the ironing table we might as well press the long edge of the facing(3) too.  Press 1/2" up on one of the long edges of the facing.

Now head on over to your sewing machine and top stitch the loop piece.

Find the center of the pillow top flap(1) and mark it with a pin.  With the right side up, fold your loop in half and pin it to the center of the top flap.  ( measure your loop against the button you will be using and adjust it smaller if you need to)  I adjusted mine by about an inch.

Using a 3/8" seam allowance, stitch back and forth over the loop to secure it.

Now with right sides together pin the unpressed edge of  your facing(3) to the lower edge of the top flap(1).

Stitch using a 1/2" seam allowance.
Press facing towards the wrong side of the top flap and pin.

Top stitch along folded edge of facing.  Try to stitch this as straight and nice as possible because this will show on the front of your pillow. 
Here's a sewing tip:  Use painters tape to put on your throat plate as a stitching guide when your stitching needs to be farther away from the edge.

Serge the top edge of your front bottom piece(2) and press under a 1/2" to the wrong side. Top stitch.

Lay your front pillow pieces out and with the top flap over the bottom front and until the height is 21". Pin.

Figure the placement of your button and hand sew it in place now. Directions for how to make the Rope Button I used can be found here:   DIY Large Rope Button

All you have left to do is insert a zipper and stitch up the top and sides.  You can find those steps here:
Basic Pillow Instructions

Happy pillow making! Pin It

DIY Large Rope Button

I was making a pillow and I wanted a large natural looking button to attach to the front of it and I didn't want to spend the time or money to drive around searching for one.  So I made my own and I was very pleased with it.

Pretty cool huh?  That would have easily cost me $3.00 plus the time and gas to drive from store to store.

I made mine 2 3/4" diameter.  First I cut 2 circles out of chipboard.

I used a little tacky glue to glue them together because one piece would not be sturdy enough.

I used some clothes pins to hold them together until they dried.

Next I found the center and made 2 small holes with a pin for me to stitch through.

Using tacky glue I started at the center tucking my starting raw edge under and began to glue the rope around and around.  When I got to the end, I simply lifted up some of the rope and tucked my raw edge under and glued it really well.

Clip it again with clothes pins until it dries and there ya go...rope button that cost me nothing but about 20 minutes of glue drying time.  Now my imagination is going wild.  I'm thinking for my next button I will use shells or beads.  What will you make your own buttons out of?
Here's how it looks on the front of my pillow.

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Cutting/Pressing Table Tutorial

Every January I re-cover my workroom table.  This is the table I do all my measuring, cutting, pinning and pressing on.  This is my DO ALL table!  I can lay out large pieces of fabric on this table and align the selvage  with the edge and know that I am cutting across it straight.  I can cut on it with out breaking my back.  I pin directly into it to keep fabric still while I'm working with it, and I can press everything on it.  In fact I don't own an ironing board.   Because I'm a drapery and window treatment workroom I require a really LARGE table 60" wide x 140" long.  I couldn't live without this table.  Now I know most of you will never have a need for such a large workroom table, but I think something like this in a smaller scale could come in handy for most sewers and crafters.  It could be done on a piece of plywood or MDF to bring out when you need it and place it on top of your craft table.

Mine gets really dirty throughout the year and boy was it bad this year! 

See, pretty gross huh?  Embarrassing gross!  Oh, and you can write on it too.  I mark measuring and cutting lines on it and the occasional notes if I find myself without a scrap piece of paper, But I'm gonna try really hard not to do math or notes or scribbles on it this year.  I want it to look nice for my blog pictures.

Here's what the new one looks like.

What you'll need for this project is a piece of 1/2" MDF cut to the size you want to fit on top of your sewing/craft table, worktable padding that is high temperature and moisture resistant, 10oz Canvas, staple gun and staples.  Here's a source I found on line for the padding you'll need, the stuff you want is the Insul-Bright.   http://www.warmcompany.com/ibpage.html


Cut your MDF to your size.  Position your thermal padding on top of the MDF and trim the padding edges  flush with the edges of your wood.  Cover this with canvas and pull it taught over the corners to the underside and staple at all 4 corners.  Now work your way around all 4 sides pulling tight and stapling on the underside.  Trim off any excess canvas from the underside.  I use these extra scraps of canvas to make holsters for my scissors at every corner of my worktable.  I'll get to that in a bit.

So here's my freshly covered table.

I use fine point permanent markers in different colors to mark my lines on my workroom table.

I color code my lines.  For instance I draw lines every 10" down the whole length of my table with the Black marker.  This helps me measure out something quickly.  Then on the long edge of my table I use the orange marker to draw lines at 3" and 6" I use these lines when pressing up a double 3" hem for the bottom edge of drapery panel lining.  Purple is used to do 4" and 8" lines which are used to press double 4" hems on the bottom of drapery panels.  Then I add and additional orange line at 1 1/2" and this is used in conjunction with my 3" line to press double 1 1/2" side hems on panels.

You can mark lines for whatever you  do on a regular basis.

Now as I mentioned I use the canvas scraps to make holsters for my scissors at every corner of my cutting table so I don't find myself on one side of the table without a pair of scissors.  Just cut a strip 2 1/4 wide by approx 4" long, fold it in 3rds and glue with tacky glue.  Then staple it to the side edge of your table.

I also have a little canvas caddy that I staple to the side of my workroom table to hold small tools, but mine is in desperate need of a re-do so I didn't post a picture, but maybe I'll do a post on how to make one in the near future.

Happy measuring, cutting, pinning and pressing all in one place!

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