Plaid Ruffle Pillow (Swell Noël #11)

Today’s Swell Noël post features a darling pillow idea  from the ever-talented Bev of Flamingo Toes. New to the series? Catch up on all of the projects from the series by visiting the photo guide of all of the ideas shared by the talented Swell Noël contributors, and follow along as things happen on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Pinterest and Instagram by using the hashtag #SwellNoel.

 

 

Hello Positively Splendid readers!!

My name is Bev and I blog over at Flamingo Toes. I am so excited to be here today as part of Amy’s Swell Noel series!

I love doing knockoffs of any kind – jewelry, sewing, home decor – I love it all! It’s so fun to create a stylish, high-priced item for a lot less!

So when I came across this darling little Ruffle Pillow at West Elm, I knew that I’d have to recreate it for a Christmas pillow!
I love all it’s ruffly goodness. Here’s my version:

I love this red and gray plaid I found. It has little threads of silver that are running through it! Perfect for Christmas!

Here’s the West Elm version. Super cute but not so Christmas-sy 😉

So here’s what you’ll need to make your own:

• One 12″ x 16″ pillow form
• Plaid fabric – 3/4 yard

Cut out of your fabric the following:

• 1 piece 12″ x 16″
• 2 pieces 10″ x 16″
• 5 strips 2″ x 44″

Cut all of your strips in half (22″ x 2″) and cut one long side of each strip with pinking shears.

Once your strips are all cut, hem the two short sides of nine of the strips. Sew a gathering stitch 1/4″ from non-pinked long side of EIGHT of the strips.
On the last strip (the one that isn’t gathered yet, press the top edge down 1/4″ to the back side. Run your gathering stitch on this one 1/8″ down from the top folded edge.

Lay out and pin all your ruffles onto the front. You’ll want them to overlap about 3/4″ so the gathered edges don’t show. You can use the photo as a guide. The top ruffle that looks like a “u” is the ruffle that has the top folded gathered edge.

Cut two more of your strips in half again. So now you have four 2″ x 11″ pieces. Fold each piece into a stacked rectangle, accordian-style. The back piece should be about 1 1/2″ wide. Try and move the folds up a little so you can see all the pinked ends. Trim off any extra on the top. Pin these folded pieces into the ruffles. Two should go on either side of the third ruffle from the bottom and two will go on either side of the third ruffle from the top.

Measure your ruffles to make sure they are centered and start and end at the same height. You can use your plaid as a guide if the lines are straight.

Sew on your ruffles, along the gathered stitching for each ruffle. Start at the bottom ruffle and move the ruffles above out of the way, without disturbing the pins.

Once your ruffles are all on, set the front aside.

With your two 10″ x 16″ pieces, hem the bottom of one of the pieces and the top of the other.

Overlap the two pieces so the piece with the hem on the bottom is over the piece with the hem on the top. Pull the top piece up just a bit until the two pieces make a rectangle that is 12″ x 16″.

Lay the front of your pillow right side down on the back pieces. Pin and sew all four sides with a 1/2″ seam allowance. Make sure you move the bottom ruffle out of the way. The two ends of the top ruffle will be sewn into the top seam. Clip the corners.

Turn right side out and slip in your pillow form – and you’re all finished!

Now you can admire all your Christmas-sy ruffly awesomeness.

I hope you like it!

Thanks so much for including me in the series Amy!