How to Make a Ruffled Toilet Seat Cover

If you like frilly things, you'll enjoy making a ruffled toilet-seat cover for your bathroom. It's a simple project that will take about an hour, and it requires only basic cutting and sewing skills. The result is a retro-look, ultra-feminine topper for your toilet seat, with airy coils of tulle rising above the lid, crowned by a trio of roses. This cover also makes a great gift for your ruffle-loving friends.

Things You'll Need

• Tulle: two yards of 52-inch-wide fabric or one 25-yard spool of 6-inch-wide fabric, any color
• Base fabric, such as cotton twill, in a matching color
• One yard of 1/4-inch elastic
• Three artificial roses
• Scissors
• Needle and thread
• Sewing machine

Instructions

Making the Base

1. Remove the toilet seat and lay the lid flat on a piece of heavy paper, cardboard or poster board. Trace around the lid. Add another line 1-1/2 inches outside the first. Replace the toilet seat.

2. Using the template you made, cut out the base of the cover.

3. Press under 1/4 inch all around the outside edge of the base, then press under 1/4 inch again. Sew the pressed edge.

4. Press under 1 inch all around the outside edge of the base to form a casing for the elastic. Sew along the pressed edge, leaving a 1-inch opening for inserting the elastic.

Making the Top

1. Cut the tulle into 5-inch-wide strips if you're using 52-inch-wide fabric.

2. Sew all of the tulle strips together, joining the short sides, to make one long strip. If you're using a spool of 6-inch-wide tulle, you'll already have one long strip.

3. Gather the tulle by sewing a long basting stitch close to one raw edge, leaving long tails of thread at the beginning and end. Pull on the tails to gather the tulle into ruffles.

4. Pin the tulle ruffles to the base, beginning at the center, and work outward in a spiral pattern. Place the edge with the gathering stitches against the base to hide them.

5. Sew the tulle ruffles to the base, either by hand or with a sewing machine.

Assembling the Cover

1. Pin a large safety pin to one end of the elastic. Push it through the casing, holding the unpinned end of the elastic to prevent it from slipping through the casing.

2. Sew the ends of the elastic together, either by hand or with a sewing machine. Sew the opening in the casing closed.

3. Sew the artificial roses to the center of the ruffled cover.

Tips & Warnings

• Add a tulle ruffle to your bathroom curtains to match your toilet-seat cover. Gather the tulle in the same way as you did for the cover, using one piece for each curtain, and sew it over the hem on the outside.

• Males may have disconcerting reactions to this project.

References

• Craft Gossip: Tutorial: Ruffled Toilet Seat Cover

Resources

• Tulle Source.com: Net and Tulle Fabric