Pleated Pillow

Pillow with pleated ruffle trim

     I bought a fun new tool at a class.  It's called The Quick Pleater.  It is used to make pleated trim.

Step one of making the box pleat ruffle

     For this pillow I chose the half inch pleater (I think).  I opted to do a box pleat where you turn the pleater one way and then the other way.

Step two of making the box pleat ruffle

     I cut strips of the ruffle fabric about 3/4 of an inch larger than the finished width.  This allowed me to sew the ruffles at the 1/2 inch line on my machine and then trim off 1/4 inch when I serged the edges.  I left the other edge with a raw edge so it could fringe a little.  I joined the strips with a french seam to hide those raw edges.

Sewing on the pleated ruffle

     I prepared the front piece by adding a lining and interlining and serging around the edges.  I then pinned my ruffle in place , clipping at the corners.

Finished front

     I joined my start and end again with a french seam.

Cutting the back using the lining as a template

     Using a template of the lining and interlining, I then cut my back piece.  I serged all around and then added my zipper part to the back piece.  I used a different part of the pattern on the back so you could flip it around to get a little different look.

Back of the pillow

    Then it was just a matter of sewing the front to the back and putting in the pillow form.

Ruffle practice strip