How to Make a Fabric Umbrella
- 1). Spread the pattern paper on the table, and turn the umbrella frame upside down on top of the paper. Mark the spot where the umbrella shaft touches the paper, and then draw a line outward to the end of the rib. You will have to roll the frame as you draw the line to make sure it lines up straight. Finish drawing a triangular shape by following the neighboring rib from the shaft to the rib's end, and then close off the end with a straight line. This is your pattern, but you still have to add seam allowances.
- 2). Measure 1 inch all the way around the outside of the drawn triangle. Cut the pattern out along the outer line using the scissors. Copy the pattern piece onto the pattern paper three times and then cut out the three pattern pieces, making a total of four pieces. Fold each of the four pattern pieces in half from the pointed tip to the wide base, making longer, thinner triangles. Unfold the pieces. The fold provides the guideline for following the fabric's grain.
- 3). Fold the fabric in half and place the pattern pieces on the fabric, with the pattern's center fold going straight up the grain of the fabric--almost like you are trying to follow a single thread in the fabric with the pattern's fold line. Cut the fabric, following the outer lines of the pattern, using the scissors. You won't be able to cut as many gores as you would if you wedged them all in, but the canopy will be less likely to wrinkle if the gores are cut on the grain. Placing and cutting four pattern pieces on double layer fabric will give you eight gores.
- 4). Sew all the way around each fabric triangle with the sewing machine, finishing the raw edges with either a zigzag or an over-lock stitch. Place the eight gores face up on the table, spread out so they have the basic shape of the canopy. Pick one and fold it over on top of the one beside it.
- 5). Sew the two pieces together at the edge you folded up and over using the sewing machine, making a 1-inch seam allowance. Do this with the next two pieces, and so on until you have four separate joined pieces.
- 6). Open the four sections and place them right side up, again in the basic shape of the canopy. Pick one section, and fold it up and over the one beside it. Join that seam on the sewing machine with a 1-inch seam allowance. Do the same with the other two sections. You will now have two semi-circles. Sew the semi-circles together with a 1-inch seam allowance.
- 7). Fold the seams so both raw edges go to one side. Fold the outer edge under 1/4 inch and sew all the way around with a basting stitch. Fold the outer edge under a second time, and sew all the way around with the sewing machine set to a medium length stitch.
- 8). Position the canopy over the ribs, and wrap the 1-inch seams around the ribs. Tuck the rib ends into the folded seams along the canopy's outer edge and hand sew the wrapped fabric to secure the ribs. Cut the wrapped fabric as needed to clear the stretchers that attach to the ribs.
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