How to make Fabric Chenille

Making your own soft chenille is fun and easy and looks wonderful when you use it to embellish many different projects.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• tracing paper
• fabric
• stiff brush
• sewing machine
• thread
• rotary cutter
• ruler
• cutting mat
• spray bottle

1. 
   Tracing paper

   Step One: First you will need some tracing paper. You can get that at an art shop or your local craft store would have it as well. Here is a pad of the one that I use to give you an example.

2. 
   Lines drawn on square of tracing paper.

   Step Two: Cut a piece of the tracing paper into a square. Starting at the center of the square, draw a diagonal line from corner to corner. Each consecutive line will be drawn 3/8 of and inch from the first line until the square is completely filled as shown.
   
   If you want to make a lot of one color of chenille, a 9 x 9 square would be great. For the projec that I did, I used about 1/3 of the 9 x 9 square, but you can save this in a bag with a closure and use it for other pojects.

3. 
   Three pieces of fabric - right sides facing up.

   Step Three: Cut 3 pieces of fabric the same size as the tracing paper that you drew the lines on. Layer them all right sides up.

4. 
   Tracing paper and fabric pieces.

   Step Four: Place the tracing paper with the lines drawn on top of the fabric. Place paper on the right side of fabric.

5. 
   Sew through all layers on each drawn line

   Step Five: Using a small stitch length, (approx 10-12 stitches per inch)sew down each line that was drawn on the tracing paper. Sew through all 3 layers of fabric and through the tracing paper on top as one unit. Start sewing on the middle line, then work on each side of the middle line evenly until all lines are sewn. It is not necessary to go completely to each end.

6. 
   Finished sewn block

   Step Six: Here is a photo of the finished square after sewing on each line.

7. 
   Pull at sides to release paper from sewing

   Step Seven: Take the corner of the sewn block and pull tightly. This will tear the paper away from the stitch for easy removal.

8. 
   Tear tracing paper from fabric.

   Step Eight: Tear away all tracing paper from fabric layers

9. 
   Cut in exact middle

   Step Nine: Cut between stitching lines. An exact measurement would 3/16 inch from stitching line. This would be the exact middle between stitching lines.

10. 
    Sew chenille and brush

    Step Ten: Sew bias chenille pieces along desired work. Because this is a bias piece, it will go nicely around curves. Be sure to backstitch the beginning and ending of all pieces.
    
    If a piece of chenille is too short to go around the total piece, just place a second piece on top of the previous piece. Make sure to backstitch where you added it to the first piece.
    
    When you brush it, you will not be able to see where one stopped and the other started!
    
    After sewing all pieces where you want them, use a stiff bristled brush to brush the chenille in a circular motion until it fluffs up. (The brush I used was purchased for fly tying and has stiff wire bristles. It is PERFECT!)

11. 
    Mist and brush again

    Step Eleven: After fluffing the chenille up a bit, spray a "mist" of water on the chenille and continue to brush in a cirular motion.
    
    It doesn't take long until it is all fluffy!!

12. Step Twelve: Finish as desired. Notice the BEEs. They even have small pieces of black chenille.

Tips & Warnings

• Use chenille on baby quilts, or clothing. These little people love to feel the soft chenille. The more they rub, the fluffier it becomes!!
• Have FUN making Chenille!
• Can be very addicting!!

Resources

• Quilting patterns, Personalized gifts

[all4quilt]

on 5/13/2009 You can purchase a "Chenille" brush through a lot of quilt shops. I actually went to my local Wal Mart and purchased a set of wire brushes found in the hardware department. There was a set of 3 for around $2.00.

[agarvey997]

on 5/12/2009 Where did you buy the brush you used to fluff the chenille?I have also made pot holders, purses, etc. with chenille. Instead of making strips, you add one more layer as the base. When you cut your strips after sewing, you do not cut through the base layer. If it is a pot holder, between the base layer and the three top fabrics, I place a layer of insul bright to hold the heat. I also find that flannel works better than cotton. With cotton, you do haave to help it with a brush. My toothbrush with cut off bristles is just not doing the trick.Thanks

[Susanh]

on 7/7/2008 Amazing! I've never heard of this technique before! Thank you for sharing it.

[Tippy]

on 6/13/2008 Fantastic! I'm sending this article to my mother in law.