Diamond Quilting: How to Sew Diamond Pleats

Diamond pleats, also known as diamond quilting, adds a high-end, stylish look to your upholstery project. Many people think sewing diamond pleats is too hard or can’t be done on a small-throated sewing machine, such as the portable Ultrafeed^® Sewing Machine. Today’s video tutorial is here to prove that it can be done! With a few simple techniques, we’ll show you how easy it is to sew a beautiful topstitched quilted diamond pattern onto your fabric assembly.

Diamond quilting is most often seen in high-end automotive seating. But you can add this decorative topstitch technique to any sewing project. Diamond pleats would look great on a padded bedroom headboard or as a decorative panel on a purse or bag.

The Sailrite^® Clear Acrylic Ruler (#102400) has 30-, 45- and 60-degree diagonal lines, which make it very easy to mark your diamond quilting lines. In the video we use a chalk pen to mark our quilting lines because the chalk marks clean up easily. Always test your marking pen on scrap fabric from your project to make sure the marks will wipe off completely.

For our diamond quilting tutorial, we chose 1/4-inch sew foam, which is a thin, fabric-backed polyurethane foam perfect for upholstery projects. The fabric backing holds stitches, allowing you to sew through the foam to create pleats, channeling and decorative topstitching accents. We glued the sew foam to a piece of EverSoft™ vinyl upholstery fabric. At the end of the video, we'll show you a sample of EverSoft quilted with 1/2-inch sew foam so you can see the difference in how foam thickness affects the pleated design.

Watch the video below to learn how to sew diamond pleats using a small-throated, portable sewing machine.

This tips and tricks video is an excerpt from our RV Renovation Series. We’re updating a 1987 Argosy Airstream trailer from top to bottom, inside and out. If you're interested in viewing the sewing projects in our RV series, just type “RV renovation series” into the search box to explore more how-to videos.

What did you think of this technique for creating diamond quilting? Do you have any sewing tips and tricks to share with other DIYers? Post your best sewing tips in the comments section below!