ruffles Archives - girl. Inspired.

Ruffled Duvet Cover Sewing Tutorial

May 21, 2015 by girlinspired 6 Comments

Years ago – so many years ago – I bought a plain white duvet cover from Target, along with some white muslin from the fabric store. I wanted to make a ruffled duvet cover for Olivia’s bed; I just needed the time and a clean floor to lay everything out and figure out how to do it. Several years and about three room shuffles later, I finally prioritized this duvet cover and it turned out so lovely! I guess needing to finish off Olivia’s bedroom for the house listing finally gave me the push I needed.

Sewing a ruffled duvet cover this way is not actually very difficult – it just takes time. Using a serger is strongly recommended. Basically, I took a pre-made white duvet cover and cut open the side and top seams so that I could attach the rows of ruffles onto the duvet top. You could seam rip those seams, but it’s a lot quicker to just slice the stitches off and you only end up losing maybe 1″ total width and height from the finished duvet once you’ve sewn it back together.

Next, you’re going to prepare your ruffles. I cut mine 6″ wide. Why 6″? Because that’s the width of my long quilting ruler so it made quick work of it. I used white cotton muslin. It’s inexpensive and is often available in widths up to 120″! If you can cut strips over 100″ long, you will be able to ruffle them and still have them stretch across the width of the duvet cover. My twin duvet cover was 61″ wide and 84″ long. I ended up using 18 strips to cover the duvet from top to bottom, with about a 1 1/2″ overlap between ruffles – I’ll show this in a little more detail in a minute. The first thing you’ll want to do is cut 1 strip from selvage to selvage and then play around with it to see how far across the piece will stretch once it’s ruffled.

For each strip, we’re going to finish the raw “top edge”, which will allow us to simply sew it right down on the duvet cover without the edges fraying. The easiest way to do this is to serge it with a 4-Thread Overlock stitch.

The “bottom edge” of each strip will have a rolled edge. Set up your serger to do a 3-Thread Overlock Rolled edge and you’ll be done in no time! Once your strip is prepared with one edge overlocked and the other rolled, it’s time to ruffle. There are several ways you can ruffle your strips and you can read about some of these options in this post on Ways to Sew a Ruffle. I ended up using a very loose ruffle so that I could get my 108″ strips ruffled down to about 70″ long. I was able to simply adjust the stitch length and tension using my regular sewing machine to achieve easy, loose ruffles. Ruffle ALL your strips along the “top edge”, the edge with a 4-Thread Overlock, not rolled. NOTE: You may need to join more than one strip together to create a ruffled piece long enough to stretch across your duvet width. If this is the case, join the multiple strips together (at their short edges) before serging the top edge, rolling the bottom edge, and ruffling the strip. Then, you can just perform the stitching on one never-ending strip all as one. After the long strip has been prepped, measure and cut it into sections that will fit the width of the duvet cover (leave a few inches overhang on each strip).

Now, it’s time to sew the ruffles to the duvet cover. Spread your opened up duvet cover out on the floor or a large, clean surface. (Ok, ok, this is the real reason it took me so many years to do this project, it required extensive mopping as a precursor and I had a hard time getting around to the deep cleaning.) Use a ruler and disappearing ink fabric marker to carefully mark a horizontal line exactly 6″ up from the bottom edge of the duvet cover – working on the right side of the duvet. Mark another horizontal line 4 1/2″ above the first line. Continue marking lines every 4 1/2″ to the top. You may want to work in sections if your marker fades quickly or you don’t think you’ll be able to complete the ruffle sewing all at one time. Now, pin or simply hold in place the first ruffle on that 6″ line. The serged, ruffled edge should align with the marked line and the rolled edge should lay facing down. You’re sewing the ruffle right side up on top of the duvet cover right side up. Sew it down using a 1/4″ seam. Use your marked line as a guide to make sure your ruffle is sewn on straight. Continue sewing subsequent ruffles. There will be about an inch of overlap for each ruffle on top of the next.

Once you’ve reached the top (the math may not work out perfectly – no problem, either stop with a little extra space at the top, or chop your last ruffle to a shorter width), you just need to sew the duvet cover back together to finish! I like to serge (or baste) the ruffles to the sides of the duvet cover so that they all lay flat and don’t get tangled up in the side seams. Once the ruffles are basted along the sides, just match the duvet cover front and back, right sides together and sew around the sides and top using a 1/4″ – 1/2″ seam. You can also serge the seams for a neat finish on the inside of the duvet cover. Now flip the cover right sides out, spread your duvet into the cover, and fluff it over the bed!

For more details on some of these techniques or for an alternate ruffled cover construction method, you should definitely check out this Rolled Hem Pillow Cover that I created for Baby Lock’s National Serger Month e-book. I think it would be SO pretty to do a whole duvet cover with a contrasting thread rolled edge! I also show how to create the full pillow cover vs. sewing the ruffles onto a pre-made pillow cover. You could use the same principle to create a duvet cover from scratch!

I’ll be back soon with a full tour of Olivia’s bedroom!

Sleeveless Peasant Dress Tutorial and the Prairie Rose Pattern

May 29, 2014 by girlinspired 18 Comments

A looooong time ago, I made a gazillion peasant dresses in a cute little sleeveless version with this ruffle around the top. Loved those dresses, and so did many of you! (I threw in some links to several at the end of the post if you want to see what I’m talking about.) I’ve had ongoing requests for a pattern for this dress, so when my friend Anneliese, from the Aesthetic Nest, asked if I’d like to try her new pattern, The Prairie Rose, I was so excited to share it with you! The Prairie Rose Pattern Set has a blouse, dress, maxi skirt, and pants, and it’s all things girly and twirly. And the pattern is super professional and classy, just like Anneliese. Today, I want to show you how to take the blouse pattern, which has sleeves, and turn it into a sleeveless dress like the one I used to make!

What you will Need:

The Prairie Rose Pattern Set by WeeMuses
fabric and elastic as specified in the pattern (I like to use contrasting fabric for neck ruffle and a band along the bottom), depending on size, you’ll need about 3/4 yard of each fabric.
1/4″ double fold bias tape

Let’s get started! You’re going to cut out the blouse front and blouse back from the pattern, extending the bodice lines down to the length of dress desired (plus hem) (if you want to use a contrasting band along the bottom, cut the dress about 5″ shorter than finished dress length.

Sew the front and back together along the side seams and press seams flat. Serge or finish raw edges if you like.

With one underarm laid out flat, open up your double fold bias tape and pin the raw edge along the raw edge of the armhole as shown.

Stitch along the center fold of the bias tape, all the way around the armhole.

This next step is really important – you’re going to trim away the excess fabric so that it is nearly to the stitch line. Do not cut any part of the bias tape and do not cut into the stitching. In the next step, we’re going to fold the bias tape to the wrong side of the armhole and you want to make sure that the dress fabric is fully tucked behind the bias tape – this means that you will need to trim the fabric very close to the stitch line.

Next, iron the bias tape up and away from the seam (not pictured). Then, fold the bias tape back up so it looks like it did when it came out of the package and press it to the backside of the underarm, so it looks like the picture above.

Now, working from the topside of the fabric, stitch along the curve of the underarm, about 1/8″ away from the edge.

You will catch the bias tape underneath to finish the underarm off neatly. Looks good from the outside and the inside, right?

Repeat for the other underarm and you’re ready to finish the top of the dress!

Cut, assemble, and hem the neck ruffle piece as outlined in the Prairie Rose Pattern instructions. Set it out in front of you, above the dress top, and with the raw edges pointed up.

Slip the neck ruffle down inside the dress bodice. You’re going to put this together the same way that you would with the pattern, you just won’t have sleeve pieces to match up with the neck ruffle.

It’s that easy! You sew the casing just like it instructs in the pattern, but the ruffle makes its own casing over the shoulder rather than joining to the sleeve to make the casing. Thread that elastic through and you’re all set!

Now you can hem the dress, or add the contrasting band, OR simply continue with the pattern to finish the blouse/dress!

The main fabric used for this dress is called “Who’s That Girl?” designed by Izak Zenou, manufactured by Robert Kaufman. The print is pure awesome and if you make your little one a dress out of it she may run around hugging her “Paris dress” for days and then insist on directing the photo shoot, whilst throwing all kinds of attitude your way. Fair warning. The fabric is a winner! The black polka dot is Robert Kaufman, too.

So that’s it! Happy Sewing!

Schoolgirl Sophisticate – Chevron Inspired PR&P Look

April 5, 2013 by girlinspired 40 Comments

Hello! Friday again! That brings us to week two of Project Run and Play! Thank you for all of your wonderful words of encouragement last week. I cannot begin to describe how great you make me feel!

I am excited to share this week’s look with you! The wonderful people from Riley Blake sent us two yards of chevron-printed cotton to incorporate into this week’s look. It was interesting to choose a color before I knew what I would be making, but once I had the fabric in front of me, I decided to make a skirt and blouse.

You can read all the details over on the Project Run and Play blog if you’d like! Here today, I wanted to show you a slew of pictures and also a couple more detailed shots of the fabric manipulating that I did with the chevron. The patterns for both the shirt and skirt were drafted completely from scratch using the pattern-drafting methods we discussed a while back. To draft new patterns in full was one of my goals for this round of Project Run and Play and the feeling of accomplishment to see the garments come to life is just awesome!

Let’s start with the fabric! I utilized most of the two yards to make enough new fabric for the skirt. I started by cutting lots of horizontal strips, holding my breath as I went. If my idea didn’t work, I didn’t know what I was going to do!! But, it worked!

Here you can see what the finished fabric for the skirt looks like – once all the pleats have been sewn in:

And here, you can see how the little triangle scales pop open just a little, giving a neat texture to the skirt and a little peek at the teal blue of the original contrasting chevron color.

We headed over to the high school for the photo shoot. I tried to drag along a bunch of potential props because I had never walked around the campus before and I wanted to have something for Olivia to play around with if she got bored with my camera directing. She thought this was great – the old books, some of my old glasses frames, the cool hallways and architecture at the high school. She was such a goofball and so giddy, I could hardly get her to hold still. We had so much fun!

Here’s a great shot where you can see the texture of the skirt “in action” :

Love, love this picture in the window!

And finally, my ABSOLUTE FAVORITE picture from the whole shoot – not exactly showcasing the outfit, but a total keeper for the family album….she’s such a goof!

Okay! So head on over to Project Run and Play and check out all of the chevron-inspired looks! I just know they’re going to be amazing – did you see last week’s? I’m so excited to see what everyone did this week!!

~~Go here to VOTE for your favorite!!~~ Voting is closed for this week – thanks so much for your support!!

Sharing at: Make It Wear It and Knock Our Socks Off

Gathering Stitch: How to Sew Perfect Gathers and Ruffles

January 5, 2013 by girlinspired 91 Comments

I’ve had some requests recently for sewing basics so today I’d like to discuss how to sew a gathering stitch. Learning how to gather fabric is a basic sewing technique, and essential for garment sewing, but it can be challenging when you are first learning.

I would LOVE IT if you would take a few minutes to leave a comment with any sewing basics that you’d like to see here on the blog. It will obviously take some time to create a good pool of basics, but it will help to know what your interests are!

Clearly, I like a lot of ruffling to accompany “my style.” And while it may be old hat to many of you, gathering and stitching fabric can be an intimidating process for others – I know it definitely was for me when I started sewing garments! I’m going to show you the process of gathering a skirt to join it to a bodice that will give you the cleanest results with (hopefully!) the least amount of frustration and/or mess. The trick is this: sew two lines of gathering stitches, press and steam your gathers, and pin a lot!! Incorporate those three things and you’ll be good! Ready?

Prepare your skirt pieces so that they’re ready to attach to the bodice. First, you’ll sew two parallel rows of long (gathering) stitches around the top of the skirt. (Stitch length long, tension loose.)

Now, mark the center front and center back on your skirt and your bodice, and pin the two together, right sides facing, with your skirt piece facing out (so you have easy access to those bobbin threads and you can see the gathers while you’re working) Four pins total – front center, back center, side, and side. Now, start pulling your bobbin threads. Work on one section at a time. Press your gathers and shoot them with some steam while you’re working. You’ll see how this helps you to gather the fabric without it folding down and without the gathers overlapping.

Now, pin the gathered skirt to the bodice. The more pins that you use, the more even your gathers will stay when you sew the pieces together. Add more steam as needed to make sure that all the gathers are lined up nicely. Then, you’re ready to stitch the bodice to the skirt. Line up your needle so that you can stitch directly in the center of your two rows of gathering stitches. You’ll see how the two rows of stitches hold everything in place. Go slow and make sure that your gathers stay even and then your raw edges stay aligned.

close up of sewing machine foot sewing over pink fabric gathers

When you have stitched all the way around, pull out all the pins, then remove both sets of gathering stitches.

closeup of finished gathering stitch on pink fabric

Serge around the raw edge if you wish. Look how neatly it finished up that inside seam. If you do not already have a serger and you’re looking for a decent quality starter serger, I recommend this Juki serger. I used mine for years (in fact, I used it for this post when I first published it back in 2013.) I still use my Juki serger alongside my Babylock when I am doing both a coverstitch and overlock stitch on the same project and don’t want to convert my machines back and forth.

Now, press your dress open (press the seam up toward the bodice) and admire your perfectly gathered skirt! I like to finish the dress off by top stitching around the base of the bodice (not shown).

Use this gathering technique for perfect ruffles added to anything! It’s not necessarily limited to attaching a gathered skirt to bodice. You would use this technique if you’re gathering a skirt to add it to a waistband or to add a ruffle to the bottom of your garment.

SO!! Is this how you do a gathering stitch?? Is this Sewing Basics tutorial helpful? What other Sewing Basics would you like to see on the Girl. Inspired. blog??

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Hailey Ruffled Up Jacket

November 30, 2012 by girlinspired 20 Comments

Along with the skinny jeans pattern I shared last week, I had been eyeing the Hailey Ruffled Up Jacket for quite awhile and I finally got to make it! My little one has been giving me such a hard time with her clothing lately, but she seems to really, really dig the jackets that I’ve made her. And she was all over the fabrics that I chose for this jacket.

I used a silky synthetic for the outside of the jacket and a gorgeous Japanese cotton for the lining. Like all of Peekaboo’s patterns that I’ve sewn, this one had clear, detailed instructions and the construction of the jacket came together smoothly.

The jacket is fully lined, which I just think adds a bit of fun and fancy to the design. In fact, with just a couple minor modifications to the pattern, you could have this jacket fully reversible! (And I realize you can’t actually see the lining very well here, but between this strong-willed little girl and the terrible gloomy weather, we were lacking in the cooperation department).

I especially loved the technique used for the ruffles on the jacket; they have just a tiny bit of fray and aren’t overly bulky. The ruffle is small enough that it doesn’t flop too much or brush up against the skin in an uncomfortable manner. It just stands up perfectly in a flattering curve around the neck and down to the hem. Love! When I sew this pattern again, I do need to be more careful about where the seams in the ruffle fall as I ended up with a seam right in the front under the chin – it’s not so noticeable that I was willing to seam rip the whole jacket and do it over, but it does bug me. This was just a matter of me not paying attention to what I was doing.

Tutu Tablecloth – Tutorial

October 8, 2012 by girlinspired 17 Comments

Last January, I made a tutu tablecloth for Grace’s princess birthday party and I have had ongoing requests for a tutorial. Being in the thick of Project Run and Play sewing back then, I didn’t take pictures of the project or have time to put together a tutorial. I pulled out the tablecloth again for Olivia’s slumber party last week and was able to try a new top for it, so I thought this would be a good time to share how I made it. What will you need?

Fabric for the tabletop – make sure your piece is wide enough to fully overhang all sides of the table. I found a fabric that was 52″ wide, so a square of it easily covered over the sides of my 45″ table. If your table is too wide, join two pieces together to form your needed width (make sure the seam runs down the center of your table.) I also looked for a fabric that would clean easily, but I have a glass tabletop that can set on top, so this wasn’t too much of a concern for me.
A LOT of tulle – tulle is quite inexpensive, so even though you’ll probably need 15+ yards, you can use a coupon or buy it on sale and end up getting it for a buck a yard or so.

First, we’ll make the portion of the tablecloth that covers the tabletop – take your fabric and drape it over your table.

Weight the fabric down on the table so that it doesn’t shift when you’re cutting. I didn’t do this and I ended up with a very not-so-perfect-too small- tablecloth – ugh! Now, you’re going to cut your tablecloth top into a circle. You want your finished tutu effect to cascade down from the top edge of the table, but you will need to cut a circle a little larger than your tabletop to allow for the seam and just a tiny bit of wiggle room (1/4″ or so). Basically, you’ll want to cut your tabletop fabric 1/2″ larger in a precise circle around the tabletop. (If you have a glass tabletop, it works A LOT better to lay your fabric on the floor, set the glass on top, and trace around (allow that 1/2″ of room for overhang and seam allowance). Cut with pinking shears so that you don’t have to finish a fraying edge later.

Now, we’re going to cut tulle. How much tulle will you need? Ready for some math?

Each cut of tulle should be your desired length from the top of the table to just above the floor (or wherever you like). I cut my strips 28″ long.

Now, how many cuts? Figure out the circumference of your table.

Circumference = diameter of the table x 3.14

My table is 45″ in diameter, so 45″ x 3.14 = a circumference of 141″ I am going to need to ruffle strips of tulle so that, once ruffled, the tulle goes all the way around the circumference of the table. So, when I ruffled one strip of tulle, it gave me 12″ to work with.

141.3″ (circumference) divided by 12″ = approximately 12 ruffled cuts of tulle. AND I WENT AROUND TWICE for enough fluff. So that’s 24 ruffled cuts of tulle. Are you with me?

You’re cutting along your yardage, right? So, multiply the desired length (28″) of your strip by the number of cuts that you’ll need (24 cuts) and you’ll get your total inches of needed tulle (672″). Now, divide by 36″ in a yard (672/36) equals approximately 19 yards of tulle. (I did a lot of rounding here, so just follow the calculations on your calculator and then add a yard or two extra to your order for “just in case.”)

Here’s your condensed math equation:

TOTAL TULLE YARDAGE= ((2 x (table diameter x 3.14)) / ruffled width of tulle) x desired length of tablecloth – then divide that whole number by 36″ to convert inches into yards.

Is your head spinning yet? I seriously had no idea I was going to be typing up such complicated calculations. If you prefer, you can just buy a truckload of tulle and go forward blindly.

So, you’ll cut all of your tulle to desired length of tablecloth, then ruffle away. Just feed one piece after the next into your sewing machine (please use a ruffling foot – PLEASE!!). You can refer to the nice visual of this in my Pettiskirt Tutorial if that helps.

Then, sew the ruffled tulle around the edge of the cut tabletop piece. Sew the tulle onto the right side of the tabletop fabric, with raw edges matched. Be sure to stitch inside (to the left of) the stitching on your tulle so that it doesn’t show on your finished tablecloth.

Go all the way around twice with your tulle (I doubled up the tulle from the start and just went around once. You also might be able to ruffle two strips of tulle together from the beginning, but I didn’t try it.) Flip the tulle down and you’re done!! You could press the seam a little if you want, but DON’T touch the tulle with the iron or it will melt!!!

Gorgeous tablecloth!

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