by Colette Georgii

Created on: August 08, 2008

How to Make a Bed Canopy

It is fairly easy to make a bed canopy. You just need to measure the part of the bed where the canopy will go so that you know how much fabric to purchase.

Bed canopies come in different styles and are made for poster beds. You can have a canopy with ruffles; a flat, draped canopy; or a curtained canopy.

First measure the width and length of your canopy. This will be the size of your canopy. Measure from top poster to bottom poster for the length. Measure from the left poster to the right poster for the width.

The length plus what you will need for the sides will determine yardage. The sides could be ruffles and you can determine the length of your ruffles according to your preference. Ruffles could be anywhere from a foot to two feet in length.

It is best to buy the widest fabric you can find - 60 inches wide- so that you won't have a seam in the middle. The fabric for the ruffles should be cut on the straight of the grain so that they will hang well. So when cutting your fabric for the ruffles, do not cut the length parallel to the selvage. The width would be parallel to the selvage. You will have to cut a lot of pieces for your ruffle. The length of the ruffle should be twice the length of the length of your measurement when you measured from the top poster to the bottom poster. And twice the length of the measurement from left to right. This is so you have enough material to make a nice ruffle.

Some canopies are like curtains all around the bed and instead of a ruffle around the top the canopy extends to the floor in a curtain. You will need to measure from the top of the canopy to the floor to get your measurement and add an inch and one-half to the length for the bottom seam, and 5/8 inch seam allowance for the top seam where it is sewed to the part that covers the top.

This curtain could either be straight or ruffled, or it could also have a ruffle added at the top, so that you would have a curtain and a ruffle. So depending on how you want to make it you would decide on the amount of fabric you will need.

You can also make a draped canopy. This would have no ruffles and hang straight from the top with pleats at the corners. It could be an open pleat or a closed pleat.

To make an open-pleated valance, cut each piece separately. These are the pieces that would normally be the ruffle, but when making a draped canopy, they should be cut twice their width and folded in half. So you will have four pieces - two pieces that will be sewn

• 1
• 2
• Next Page >>