Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Making Ruffles

Anna asked me to do a tutorial on making ruffles. So, here's the quick. And I learned this all from others through online tutorials.

Making ruffles is easy-peasy. 

First things first: you're going to making a long straight stitch with a loose tension

 You'll cut a piece of fabric as wide as you want your ruffles and make it as long as possible. Then start sewing down the middle of the fabric with your thread dangling off the end, no double-backing. 

Easy.

 Then you will hold one of the threads on the end with one hand and start pulling/gathering/puckering the fabric back with the other hand
 Be very careful not to pull too hard and break the thread.

Once you get to the end of your fabric, you only need to tie a knot with your two threads on both sides since you are probably going to sew it to something else. If for some reason you want only the ruffle, secure your stitches better after your ruffle is achieved.

 Easy.

I did that horizontally across this knit fabric for a little embellishment on this headband.

This flower was achieved with the same technique, only I stitched not down the middle, but about 1/3 of the way across, turned it into a ruffle and then wrapped the fabric around itself in a circular pattern. Very easy.