I am wanting so bad to make the beautiful material looking fondant bunched up Swags and draping for my cakes .... But I cant figure out how to make it nicely and I cant find a tutorial or directions!!! The only thing I can find is a mold and it is really expensive...and I prob will end up buying one if I have to ...But I would rather learn to make myself to keep cost down if possible!

Thanks in advance for the help you all are just Awsome!!! I honestly think cake decorators are some of the Nicest people I have met...so giving and helpful

i think there is one on wilton, i'll try and find it for you

i struggled with this too. what worked for me was placing the fondant over a few thin dowels.
it will look like an accordian (stretched out) on the dowels. when you slide the dowels out, and carefully bunch up the ends it looks like fabric.
the biggest problem with this is that it's easy to poke a hole in the fondant with the dowel (actually i used paintbrush handles). i also tried this using 50/50 gumpaste fondant and found that it was easier. hth.

Have you tried searching on utube?

I had six wedding cakes this week and FOUR of them had drapes - I feel your pain!!! I make my own fondant to cover my cakes but I always use Wilton fondant for the drapes. It's like play dough - much easier to work with. I roll out a long thin strip on a lightly greased surface, cut it to size with my pizza cutter and then place the long strip over three thin wooden dowels. The dowels have to be longer than the fondant strips for it to work properly. Then I gently rub the fondant along the top of each dowel to imprint the shape of the dowel into the fondant and then gently slide the dowels out. This leaves me with a strip of fondant with three humps. I sort of push the humps tighter together and then I just lift it up, gently turn it over and brush with a bit of vanilla, then I put it in place. Wilton fondant will stretch a bit but it very rarely tears or breaks.

Good luck!

Sorry, I know there is a video on utube for this. I have seen it before, but I couldn't find it. I do the same thing that Classycakes does. It works ok. Just roll out fondant trim to the length you need drape over small dowels, rub gently, pull out dowels, sqeeze end together to create the swag look. I just brushed mine with a little water, but they stuck ok. Not to much though.

ooh I've been wondering about this too, thanks for the all the information I'll have to give it a go now I know. It definitely helps if you put a bit of tylo powder into fondant it really makes it easier to handle.

wow thanks sooo much ladies I think I can do it now!!! great description with the dowel idea

Deco Pac has on it's website in the catalog of wedding cakes a picture tutorial of "Fondant Swag Instructions. HTH. I used this to learn how to make swags for a cake recently.
Hammy

Here's the Deco Pac tutorial as PP mentioned http://www.decopac.com/resources/printmat/WeddDecoratorsGuide08.pdf page 69