Ruffled Burlap Pillow Tutorial

Burlap and ruffled pillows are everywhere these days, so I decided to throw one together with some scraps I had.

Supply list:

Pillow form (I used 24x24 from Joann's)

A piece of muslin cut roughly 2 inches bigger than your pillow form (26x26 in my case)

burlap, (enough to cut a 26x26 square for the back and then 9-10 strips roughly 34" long and 3-4 inches wide...hey this isn't an exact science!)

a contrasting fabric (enough to cut at least 10 strips twice the width of your pillow (mine were about 48" long) and 3" wide)

sewing machine and thread!


Here is a pic of the strips I cut to use on the pillow. As you will note, the burlap ones aren't as long, because they are so stiff and I didn't ruffle them as much. If you are OCD do not attampt this project. It is messy and I am sooo not a perfectionist. I think it lends character to the project **wink** wink** :)


Start by pinning the first strip on to your muslin square. Begin at the bottom and work your way up to avoid a major headache. (I started with the fabric) and folding/pining as you go to create the ruffles. I forgot to take a pic of the pining process, but here is a pic of some of the ruffles already sewn onto the muslin. Pretty straightforward....just sew the pieces straight on, alternating as you go. It would be pretty with lots of different prints as well, very Anthro.



A closer shot of the ruffles as they are sewn. Hey, don't judge, I am no seamstress:) If I can do this you can do this! As you can see you will need to trim later. If you want to add some stop-fray to the edges or even dilute a little Elmer's glue and apply lightly to the edges, this will prevent fraying as well.

Keep stitching until all ruffles are in place. Take your piece of Burlap that you cut to fit and sew to the ruffled side of the pillow. Sew around 3 sides and then turn inside out. I know you would normally just leave a little hole to turn it right side out, but believe me, this is bulky and you will save yourself a meltdown by doing it this way. After it is right side out, place your pillow form inside and hand stitch it closed! Isn't it lovely? You should be proud!


Finished pillow....thanks for viewing!

~Emily