La*tee*da*kids: King Size Ruffled Sham Tutorial

I rarely sew home dec, not sure why, but in this case I was forced to dive into this project in my quest to revamp my bedroom! I am loving neutral color palettes seen popping up all over the place and of course I love a bit of a feminine touch with some ruffles. I decided I needed to make my own since I wasn't finding what I wanted readymade at a pricepoint I could stomach! I keep telling myself this switch to neutrals makes perfect sense so I can use it as a backdrop and add pops of color here and there as I like.

If you want to try making some of your own, follow along. Click on any photo if you would like to see it enlarged.

First off you just need to gather your supplies. I love the look of burlap but hardly appropriate for bedding! I picked up a neutral linen blend aiming for that French Country look. If your fabric is 56" wide like mine, then grab about 3 1/2 yards of fabric. You technically need 3 yards based on my measurements but I always love a bit of wiggle room. Ask for 3 1/8th of a yard if you want to have a tiny bit of extra to account for any stray you may have in your cutting line :)

You will start by cutting your pieces out and you will have 6 total pillow pieces and then your ruffle strips. When I was determining how much fabric I needed, I played with the math (yuck math) to figure out how to best place the fabric to reduce waste. I drew the chart out above so you could see how I laid mine out. If you have 44" wide fabric, adjust as needed. If there isn't a specific direction to your print, move your rectangles however you like.

Again, the pieces you will need are
Qty 2 20" x 36" pieces - this is the front of your pillow
Qty 2 20" x 19" pieces - these are the back pieces
Qty 2 20" x 21" pieces - other set of back pieces
Qty 6 8" strips - you will need 3 for each pillow to make your ruffles

I have them cut so the opening will be slightly off from center. The reason I didn't do them the same was just because I didn't want to cut it too close with a 56" wide fabric. Sometimes you lose a bit of print to the selvage.

Now take the 4 pieces that will be the back of the pillow. The back of your pillow will be open with these pieces slightly overlapping so you can just slide your pillow inside. Iron a crease down the sides that will be your backside opening (a 20" side) Fold 2x and iron down so there are no raw edges.

Now stitch this down on all 4 pieces.

Now we will start working on the ruffles. Take 3 of the long strips and stitch your short sides together. After you've done this you will have 2 long strips. Iron these in half lengthwise and this will be your ruffle.
After you've done that, open the piece back up and stitch together that last short side creating one big loop and then return the fold into place.

Take your 2 big loops and on your longest stitch, I'd suggest basting them together. Basting is just a long straight stitch. I'm using a home dec weight fabric so it was helpful to have it attached all along the raw edge so it fed through my ruffler foot at the same rate.

After you've done that, feed that same long strip through your machine using your ruffler foot. If you don't have one, I HIGHLY recommend getting one for a project like this. They aren't cheap but are worth owning! You can create loose or tight ruffles, your choice! If you want a tutorial on using a ruffler foot, click HERE If you don't want to take the plunge, ruffle away however you like.

After you've completed ruffling, pin your ruffle to the large rectangle, right sides together. I don't have a right side to my print but in this photo if I did, the center would show your print right now . Match up those raw edges and pin away. I decided to go ahead and stitch the ruffle on although some may jump right to adding the other side of the pillow. Since I'm using a heavier weight fabric, I felt better having the ruffle already secured on so I could move things around as needed while stitching and while I could see it.

Now take your smaller pieces and place those on top of the ruffle so the right side is facing down. Your center opening should slightly overlap. Pin these pieces down and then stitch down. *I backstitched and then stitched over again where the 2 pieces joined on either side just so it was a bit more reinforced. I thought that spot might be a bit more vulnerable to a tear since it'll be a stress point when putting the pillow in and taking out. I also serged all of my edges. Not necessary if you don't have one but I prefer the nice clean interior seams so that's what you see here.

Now reach into the opening on the backside, grab the ruffle and flip your pillow sham inside out pulling all of your ruffles to the edge. Now give it a nice good press and add your pillow inserts! I didn't have nice full ones on hand but you can bet I'll be heading to the store to get some nice full ones.