DIY TUTORIAL: HOW TO MAKE RUFFLED PILLOWCASES

Hi! This is the story of how a woman spent several hours on figuring out how to make ruffled pillowcases with an insertion flap, so you don’t have to! I searched for a tutorial on how to combine the two elements (ruffles plus insertion flap) but couldn’t find any. But I figured out the secret – it’s all about combining a French seam with normal seams. By the way, I’ve learned that pillowcases don’t have a flap in several parts of the world – you can leave the flap piece out if you want. I think it looks way better with a flap on the inside, because it hides the pillow. Let’s do this!

The inspiration came from this site, although I saw the same design back in the summer of ’21 and wanted to make some ever since. Obviously, ruffled pillows aren't really anything new. I do think the looser ruffles make them more modern and cute :). The fabric I used is a sandwashed cotton in my favorite color.

Step 1: cutting your fabric

I ordered the fabric, prewashed it, and got started. The first thing you need to do is measure the pillow size you need. My pillowcases are 70x60cm. I wanted 1,5cm of seam allowance, so I cut two rectangles of 73x63cm to make one pillowcase. For the flap, I cut out a piece of 63x24cm. If your fabric is wide enough, you can have a front side of 73x63cm and a back side of 73x84cm, so the flap has no seam. Looks pretty but isn’t necessary. If you want to make more than one pillowcase, repeat these steps for each one.

Tip: instead of looking up your pillow size, take a pillowcase that fits well around your pillow and use those measurements plus seam allowance.

For the ruffle, you need to measure the four sides of your rectangle (without the flap of course) and double those measurements. Because I wasn’t planning on measuring the pleats (aka ruffles), I just cut 4 lengths of my 140cm wide fabric which was more than enough. If you come up short, you can just cut a bit more and attach it to the rest – the good thing about ruffles is they hide lots of imperfections.

I wanted ruffles of 7,5cm, so I cut several lengths of 10,5cm (1,5cm seam allowance on each side).

Step 2: prepping the ruffle piece

Sew the ruffle pieces together on the short sides & finish the seams however you want to. Remember these seams will be visible on the back of the pillow so it’s a good idea to French seam these. Just looks prettier. Hem one side (lengthwise, of course). Because I have 1,5cm of seam allowance, I tuned once at 0,5cm, pressed, and folded another time at 1cm. Press again and sew at 1cm.

Step 3: making the ruffles

Then it’s time to make the ruffles! The actual name for what I did is knife pleats, but I did them with a little twist. I was looking for loose ruffles, so I didn’t fold over the fabric completely. I just left some room between the pleats. I just eyeballed the width (about 2-2,5cm), although you can measure out the points you want to fold over. I don’t love the look of tight & super even ruffles; it gives me too much sugary sweet vibes, if that makes sense.

Step 4+5: sewing the flap to the back piece & French seaming the ruffle opening

Sew the flap to one of the rectangles (I French seamed this, but that’s not really necessary here). Hem the bottom of the flap the same way as the ruffle piece.

Take the other rectangle without flap and sew the ruffle on one of the short sides with a French seam – very important here!

Step 6: sew the front & back together with the ruffle in between

Lastly, take your rectangle with flap and sew this to the other rectangle right sides together with the ruffle sandwiched in between, lining up the raw edges. Sew down the three sides at 1,5 cm, and finish the seams however you want. Of course, you leave the side you just Frenched (hehe) open.

And that’s it, now you know how to make ruffled pillowcases! Aren't they cute?? They're also very popular with my cats, as you can see. Don’t forget to tag me @sycamoreroadpatterns if you decide to make these!