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15 Ways To Use Ticking Fabric In Your Home Decor

Are you a fan of ticking fabric? Want to know more about how to identify authentic ticking fabric and the best ways to use it for your home decor? You will love these fifteen creative ideas for using ticking fabric in your home.

This durable fabric is excellent for many decorating projects, and you’ll see why it’s a favorite to add a touch of farmhouse style to any home.

These creative projects and tips will inspire you to add a touch of this classic fabric to your decor.

What is ticking Fabric and how can you decorate with it in your home decor?

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What Is Ticking Fabric?

You may have heard of ticking fabric being referred to as Mattress fabric. It has been a popular choice for centuries when making bedding, especially mattresses.

Although ticking was initially made from hemp or flax, cotton became the most common material used by the 19th century.

It was often used in military barracks and other institutional settings because it was durable and easy to care for.

Authentic ticking is durable, and the classic stripe is woven into the fabric. Unlike many materials, It is not screen printed on the front. This makes it great for craft and DIY projects. If the backside of a strip fabric isn’t stripped, it’s not ticking.

The original classic strip is one more prominent stripe bordered by a thin strip on each side repeated across the width of the fabric. The stripe on the front or right side of the material is slightly brighter than the strip on the backside, and the most common colors are red, blue, beige, and black.

What is Ticking Fabric and how durable is it.

What is Ticking Fabric Used for?

You can use Ticking Fabric for many craft and home decor items. It is trendy in country, farmhouse, and cottage-style decor.

The fabric is durable and great for seat cushions and upholstered furniture. It’s easy to clean and maintain.

You’ll find it is used for various purposes, such as tote bags, aprons, and curtains.

The popular woven strip in red and blue is popular for rustic patriotic decor and Christmas decorating.

Seat Cushions and Upholstery

One of the most popular uses of ticking fabric for home decor is for seat cushions and upholstered furniture.

The fabric works well in farmhouse, cottage, and country-chic homes.

Accent Pillows

Ticking strips mix well with almost any decor style; therefore, accent pillows are a great addition to your home decor for all seasons.

Ticking fabric is great for seasonal pillows in home decor.

Home Decor Bedding Ideas

A vintage farmhouse-style bedroom looks perfect with a ticking stripe bedspread. Although the fabric is a stripe, it has a neutral feel that allows for many fabric and color combinations to make the bedding look unique seasonally.

Look for ticking fabric pillow shams, bed skirts, quilts, and accent pillows to add country charm to your bedroom.

Home Decor Pillow Covers

When decorating in a cottage or farmhouse style adding pillow covers made with ticking fabric adds a stylish and fresh look to your decor. Pillows can be made with added piping or ruffles to create a unique custom design.

DIY ticking fabric pillow with ruffles.  Great Farmhouse Home Decor.

Scrap Fabric Seasonal Pillow Covers

Recycle fabric scraps to make fun seasonal-inspired pillow covers. Check out these cute options using red and blue fabrics.

Heart Pillow From Scraps

This easy DIY project can be completed in just a few hours to create a one-of-a-kind heart pillow.

DIY ticking fabric pillow cover made from scrap fabrics for a red and white heart valentines day pillow.

Patriotic Star Pillow – Ticking Fabric Scraps

And using the same technique, you can make a Patriotic Star Pillow by combining red and blue stripes. Some old chenille bedspread scraps were used to make the stars for the patriotic pillow.

DIY Home Decor made from scrap fabric for a patriotic star pillow cover.

DIY Creative Apron

Would you believe this delightful Craft and Gardening Apron is crafted from a tea towel and ticking fabric?

The apron’s ticking front pocket and sash stabilize the lightweight tea towel.

Unique craft and garden apron made from a tea towel and red and white ticking fabric.

Patriotic Home Decor

There are several ways to add patriotic home decor by using ticking fabric.

Another way to use scrap fabrics is to make streamers hang from a light fixture. Adding the ticking streamers and stars made of drop cloth fabric creates a festive lighting feature over the patriotic table setting.

See more details on Easy Made Patriotic Tablescape.

Greenhouse light fixture with scraps of fabric for a lighting home decor accent for 4th of JUly.

DIY Ticking Cutlery Napkins

In addition to the light fixture, the patriotic tablescape includes DIY Ticking Napkins with cutlery pockets.

The placement of the strips gives the illusion of a flag, and drop cloth fabric stars add to the cute home decor design.

DIY Patriotic Napkins made from ticking fabric and drop cloth fabric for a 4th of JUly table in the Greenhouse.

The patriotic napkins inspired these Christmas cutlery pocket napkins with red and white buffalo checks added to the red stripe fabric.

Although designed for a Christmas table, the festive fabrics work for almost any occasion.

Buffalo print and red and white stripes make cute cutlery napkins for Christmas Home Decor.

Table Runner

Also, take a look at the table runner that matches.

You can make this festive design using the same buffalo check and red stripe as the cutlery pocket napkins.

However, it is finished with stylish tassels added to the end of the runner.

You can see all the details on Easy Christmas Table Runner Tutorial

Festive table runner with ticking tassels and buffalo prints in red and white.  Holiday home decor.

A tassel garland DIY project inspired the table runner tassels. The project used red stained beads and strips of red and white fabric.

DIY Tassels with red wooden balls and striped ticking.

Some of the tassels were repurposed for different projects, such as napkin holders and door ornaments.

DIY napkin ring made from red and white ticking scrapes.  Christmas Home Decorations.

Red and White Ticking Fabric for Christmas

The red and white ticking fabric is excellent for Christmas decorating.

You can choose sustainable Christmas decor by using fabric scraps to create craft ideas.

First, look at these recycled old ornaments. I wrapped them in red ticking scraps and added the ornaments to the DIY Shiplap tree for Christmas.

You can also add streamers of recycled ticking fabric as tree garlands.

Decorate a Shiplap tree with recycled ornaments wrapped in red and white stripes.

Sustainable Gift Toppers With Recycled Fabrics

Next, adorable package toppers are made using scraps of fabric. The design choices are unlimited.

These also look perfect as ornaments on a Christmas tree.

They are simple to make for FREE and add a unique touch of whimsey to your gift packages and Christmas tree. You can see all the different shapes and ideas on DIY Gift Package Toppers.

Ticking Stockings

Meanwhile, the stockings were hung in the greenhouse with care. This is a technique to distress the fabric, giving the stockings a rustic feel. Adding a couple of fun tassels gives the stocking additional charm.

You can see a no-sew version of The easy stocking tutorial using fabric glue.

Red and White strip for Rustic DIY Christmas Stockings.

More Farmhouse Style Decorating Ideas

Thanks for stopping by today, and I look forward to sharing more adventures with you.

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15 Ways to Decorate with Ticking Fabric for unique home decor.

Mitten Moments - cottage in the mitten

Monday 19th of June 2023

[…] These 15 ways to use ticking fabric in your home […]

Kim | Shiplap and Shells

Sunday 18th of June 2023

So many fabulous ideas Rachel! Your pillows are my very favorites.

Rachel

Monday 19th of June 2023

Kim, I'm so glad you like them. I love making them.

CoCo

Friday 16th of June 2023

So excited for this post, Rachel. We just ordered a gray and white ticking shower curtain for Loblolly! Thanks for all these fabulous ideas, CoCo

Rachel

Saturday 17th of June 2023

CoCo, I'm sure it looks beautiful.

Cindy@CountyRoad407

Friday 16th of June 2023

Love your creativity and talent! But can you just please sew some for me? I'll take some of everything. ;)

Rachel

Saturday 17th of June 2023

Aww Cindy I have sewed so much over the years that I don't enjoy it as much as I used to. However, when an idea sparks, I pull out the machine.

Kim

Thursday 15th of June 2023

So many great ideas, Rachel! I just love ticking fabric. The red is my fav. The tassels you made are fantastic!

Rachel

Friday 16th of June 2023

Kim, I really appreciate this.