How to Make Shabby Chic Rag Quilts

Use squares of velvet fabric for a rich, luxurious contrast.

Create a sleek home decor accessory from some of your favorite fabrics, and then turn it into a trendy and shabby quilt with some simple cutting and fraying. Use just one or two different colored or textured fabrics for a modest quilt, or go crazy with color and texture, and make the quilt from as many different fabrics as you can find. The quilt will look great draped across your living room sofa, or use it to dress up the guest room as a bedspread.

Things You'll Need

• 4 yards of fabrics
• Scissors
• Straight pins
• Sewing machine
• 4 yards of backing fabric

Instructions

1. Lay out the fabrics on a clean, flat surface. Use fabrics such as velvet, satin, silk brocade, fleece and denim for significant contrast and texture.

2. Cut 13-inch squares from each of the fabrics. Cut a total of 30 squares for a 60-by-72-inch quilt.

3. Organize the squares into the quilt-size rectangle, spreading out the different types of fabric throughout. Line up the squares in rows of five squares. Make a total of six rows and pin one-half inch of fabric from one square to one-half inch of fabric from an adjacent square. Repeat to connect all adjacent sides together. The one-half inch of fabric from each square should be protruding upward above the good side of the fabric.

4. Sew a straight stitch through the bottom of the one-half-inch protrusion of fabric in between each pair of squares.

5. Cut a 60-1/2-by-72-1/2-inch piece of backing fabric and lay it face down on the good side of the quilt. Sew around the outer edges of the quilt and backing fabric, leaving a 12-inch space open along one side.

6. Invert the quilt through the gap, fold the edges of the gap inward, and sew the gap closed.

7. Use scissors to cut slits along the one-half-inch protrusions to make the shabby, frayed quilt. Make one slit every one-quarter inch along every protrusion. Run your fingers along the slit fabric afterwards to fray the fabric.

References

• "Cut, Sew, Quilt as You Go" Sheri A. Bignell, et al.; 2004
• "Frayed-Edge Fun"; Evelyn Sloppy; 2011