Project 2 - Ruffled Nursing Cover - 997 Days Left

The picture isn't really true to color... The ruffle and straps are fire engine red.

Cost Breakdown
Fabric: $13.90 ($6.95/yard, normally $8.95/yard)
Thread: $6.46 (2 @ $3.23 each, normally $5.39 each)
O-rings: $2.79 
Total Cost with tax: $25.23


I made this nursing cover for a friend who is expecting a little girl next month. It was totally fun, and I have to admit, I've made nursing covers in the past, but never one like this.


Here are my materials:

2 yards of decorative fabric, 1/2 yard of ruffle/strap fabric, heavyweight sew-in interfacing, O-rings, and a pipe thingy from Home Depot (yes, of course that is the technical term for it), which I had my wonderful husband cut into a 16" length for me.

I started by cutting two strips of fabric for the ruffle, both 5" wide (and the entire width of the fabric, which I think was 44"). I then pinned the two pieces together and left about a 5" gap open where I would turn the ruffle right side out (see picture below for gap in pins).

I then sewed the two pieces together, pivoting at the corner with my needle down to give the cleanest look to the fabric.

Poo... my bobbin cheapness led me to run out of thread mid-way through sewing...

I then turned the ruffle inside out and ironed it. I've found that ironing in between steps makes the fabric SO much easier to work with!

I don't have a ruffling foot, so I had to do the ruffles the old-fashioned way by creating two lines of thread across the length of the ruffle to bunch it up. It's VERY important not to backstitch at the beginning or the end of the threads, otherwise you won't be able to bunch the fabric up. I set my stitch length to the longest possible for ease of bunching, then sewed the two lines across the top of the ruffle.

Once done with the lines, I started bunching and made the ruffle about 36" in length, the finished width of the nursing cover.

I then cut my decorative fabric - two 25" x 37" pieces, which allows for a 1/2" seam to give a finished dimension of 24" x 36" (not including the ruffle).

Apparently I'm the only one with such an obsession for sewing...

So anywhoo, after cutting the decorative fabric, I cut the fabric for the straps, one 3" x 10" and one 3" x 18".

I then attached both O-rings to the shorter strap.

By the way, you may notice that I top-stitch EVERYTHING... I think it gives the final product a cleaner look, plus it makes the fabric much easier to work with and less difficult to iron after being washed.


So after adding the O-rings to the short strap, I pinned the ruffle to the decorative pieces of the fabric. As you can see in the picture, the side of the ruffle with the strings I pulled on is pinned to the bottom of the RIGHT side of one of the pieces of decorative fabric. I then took the other piece of fabric, RIGHT side facing DOWN, and pinned all three pieces together. This makes for a nice, strong seam and also makes it look more finished.

Here's what the ruffle looks like once sewn on and the fabric is turned right side out.

I then sewed the two short sides of the two pieces of decorative fabric together, leaving the top end where the straps will be attached completely open.

Afterward, I cut two 1" x 18" pieces of the interfacing, and sewed the long ends together, creating a housing for the piece of pipe thingy.

Inserting the piece of pipe thingy isn't very easy...

Once done with that, I found the center of the interfacing pipe thingy and matched it with the center of the top of the nursing cover. This way I was able to measure out to each side how far the straps had to be attached. (I forgot to take a picture of the straps attached... It was getting late and I forgot the most important sewing tool - coffee).

I attached the straps out as far as they needed so that each would just be at either end of the interfacing pipe thingy. I did this in the same manner that I attached the ruffle, but placing the raw end in between the decorative fabrics, sewing, then turning the fabric inside out.


I found the easiest way to get the interfacing pipe thingy placed was to drop it inside the hole at the top of the nursing cover once I turned it right side out, then topstitched around the entire nursing cover (therefore closing the interfacing pipe thingy inside) and positioning it at the top with pins, then sewing around it. Since I didn't think ahead to make a tube of fabric for it out of the top of the nursing cover, this was the easiest solution.


And the final product is what you see at the top of the page. :)