Ruffle Tutorial

My sister-in-law Alyson and I spent from 7:30 am to 7:30 pm crafting it up yesterday making lots of cute things. One of the projects we worked on were these ruffle-bum onesies and bibs with ruffles. They just make me happy. Alyson helped me put together a quick and easy tutorial for you. 

Decide how thick you'd like your ruffle. Times that number by two and add a four inch seam allowance. For the length at least double the length of the item you'll be ruffling. You can always cut it off if it's too long. For the bib we are working on we made our strip 4.5X30 inches long. Pin the ends together length wise.

 Sew down the full length which will make a tube.

Take your "tube" and turn it right side out.

Iron it flat so the crease is down the middle. The seam will be in the back of your ruffle.

Carefully fold your pressed strip to make pleats. Of course they can be as thick or as thin as you'd like. Just make sure they line up correctly and end up being level all the way across. 

Pin it down. 

Sew it down taking the pins out as you go and lightly pulling on the base fabric you are attaching it to. For the bigger ruffles I sewed down the top and the bottom. On some of the ruffle bums I used my pinking shears on the ends and just sewed one line right down the middle. 

Add some pizzazz (or don't) and you have the cutest little girly ruffle ever.

 Same thing for the onesies just adding three rows of smaller ruffles.

 A little ruffle bum in action.

Hope that all makes sense. Thanks for ruffling it up with me today!