A Lightweight Coverlet Tutorial (Bojagi!)
One thing I love about having a quilt blog is getting to share tutorials. It's been forever since my last tutorial and I just finished something I think you'll like!
What I want to show you today is more of a technique than a project. The tutorial shows how I made a lightweight coverlet for my bed but this technique can be used to make tablecloths, towels, clothing or curtains. You can use any fabric, lightweight to heavy. What makes this technique really special is that your finished object will be only one layer and, with certain fabrics, reversible.
What I'd like to show you today is a traditional Korean patchwork called Bojagi (or Pojagi). It was love at first sight when Victoria posted about her gorgeous Pojagi panels on her blog: The Silly BooDilly.
I read up on different techniques (including Victoria's wonderful tutorial) and did some experimenting. Now I'm excited to share with you my preferred way to make Bojagi fabric.
Materials:
Any kind of fabric
Sewing machine
Iron
Take two pieces of fabric and place together wrong side to wrong side (or right side to right side). Layer so that the edge of the top fabric is at least 1/2" away from the edge of the bottom fabric (if your fabric is thicker than quilting cotton, you may want to increase this distance). Sew 1/4" from the edge of the top fabric.
When you open your two pieces, you'll have a smaller and a larger flap.
Press the larger flap over the smaller flap. I use an iron on both sides to get the seam nice and crisp.
Once your seam is ironed, start tucking the larger flap under the smaller flap.
Press with your iron to make sure the flap stays tucked under.
Sew close to the edge of the flap, making sure to always catch the flap with the needle.
If you sewed your pieces wrong side to wrong side, you will have two lines of stitching on the front of your piece and only one on the back.
If you sewed your pieces right side to right side, you will have one line of stitching on the front and two on the back.
Start adding more pieces. Always layer your pieces at least 1/2" apart.
Fold the larger flap over the shorter, tuck under and iron.
Sew close to the edge of the flap.
Front
Back
Add pieces until you reach your desired size. For my coverlet, I sewed strips of the same lengh (but different widths) together until I got a squarish block. I sewed the blocks together into rows then sewed the rows together.
Once your piece is the correct size, you can finish the edges a few ways. You can add a binding if you want to "frame" your piece or you can simply fold and sew the edges like I did.
Fold your edge over 3/4"-1" and iron (I try not to worry about being too precise here.)
Tuck the edge under and iron flat.
Sew near the edge from end to end, backstitching at the start and finish. Repeat on all four sides, folding the corners when you get to them.
At this point, you have a finished piece of fabric!
As always, thanks for reading and let me know if you have questions. Please do check out all of Victoria's Pojagi panels for more inspiration. My favorite is the all green one!
Here are some more great ideas for Bojagi patchwork:
-Shannon is planning to make a shower curtain!
-I've always secretly wanted to make a patchwork skirt.
What I want to show you today is more of a technique than a project. The tutorial shows how I made a lightweight coverlet for my bed but this technique can be used to make tablecloths, towels, clothing or curtains. You can use any fabric, lightweight to heavy. What makes this technique really special is that your finished object will be only one layer and, with certain fabrics, reversible.
What I'd like to show you today is a traditional Korean patchwork called Bojagi (or Pojagi). It was love at first sight when Victoria posted about her gorgeous Pojagi panels on her blog: The Silly BooDilly.
I read up on different techniques (including Victoria's wonderful tutorial) and did some experimenting. Now I'm excited to share with you my preferred way to make Bojagi fabric.
Materials:
Any kind of fabric
Sewing machine
Iron
Take two pieces of fabric and place together wrong side to wrong side (or right side to right side). Layer so that the edge of the top fabric is at least 1/2" away from the edge of the bottom fabric (if your fabric is thicker than quilting cotton, you may want to increase this distance). Sew 1/4" from the edge of the top fabric.
When you open your two pieces, you'll have a smaller and a larger flap.
Press the larger flap over the smaller flap. I use an iron on both sides to get the seam nice and crisp.
Once your seam is ironed, start tucking the larger flap under the smaller flap.
Press with your iron to make sure the flap stays tucked under.
Sew close to the edge of the flap, making sure to always catch the flap with the needle.
If you sewed your pieces wrong side to wrong side, you will have two lines of stitching on the front of your piece and only one on the back.
If you sewed your pieces right side to right side, you will have one line of stitching on the front and two on the back.
Start adding more pieces. Always layer your pieces at least 1/2" apart.
Fold the larger flap over the shorter, tuck under and iron.
Sew close to the edge of the flap.
Add pieces until you reach your desired size. For my coverlet, I sewed strips of the same lengh (but different widths) together until I got a squarish block. I sewed the blocks together into rows then sewed the rows together.
Once your piece is the correct size, you can finish the edges a few ways. You can add a binding if you want to "frame" your piece or you can simply fold and sew the edges like I did.
Fold your edge over 3/4"-1" and iron (I try not to worry about being too precise here.)
Tuck the edge under and iron flat.
Sew near the edge from end to end, backstitching at the start and finish. Repeat on all four sides, folding the corners when you get to them.
At this point, you have a finished piece of fabric!
As always, thanks for reading and let me know if you have questions. Please do check out all of Victoria's Pojagi panels for more inspiration. My favorite is the all green one!
Here are some more great ideas for Bojagi patchwork:
-Shannon is planning to make a shower curtain!
-I've always secretly wanted to make a patchwork skirt.
This is awesome! Basically, French Seams throughout. It can be tedious, but the result is so nice and pretty!
ReplyDeleteI've found, in the past, that a specialty food like a topstitching foot, is awesome for French seams.
thanks for posting this!!! i'm going to use this technique to make me a new pretty shower curtain using grommets for the rings!!!!
ReplyDeletewow...that is really cool! I love it! but I'm so bad at sewing straight and having it look so nice like yours! I'd be going over the edges and missing the folds everywhere! (yes...I totally suck!) Anyway, yours is gorgeous and I'd never heard of this, so now I'm off to look at the links you included!
ReplyDeleteWhoa. This is absolutely gorgeous. I love the colors you picked, and the seams look so cool.
ReplyDeleteI've never seen anything like this... it is beautiful!
ReplyDeleteI just thought of this bc I think after I'm done with my AMH quilt for our bed, I'm going to use any leftover fabric to use this method for curtains for our room! I'm pretty sure there is only one window in our bedroom to be, so this will be fairly easy! It would be pretty to have the light filtering through the curtains!
ReplyDelete