Make your own ruffled skirt

Sewing Bee Fabrics Tutorial

How To Make A Ruffled Skirt From Old Shirts

When my husband decided he had finished with 2 matching shirts, I thought it would be wrong not to keep them together, so with a little bit of patterned  fabric, this skirt was created.

What you will need
2 long sleeve shirts ( the body of the shirt needs to easily fit over
your hips)
Contrasting fabric (mine was approx. 110cm x 50cm)
Enough wide elastic to comfortably fit around your waist.
A lot of matching thread

How to make it:
First, make the under skirt by cutting straight across one shirt just underneath the armpits. Then, remove the thickened fabric with the buttons and buttonholes, being sure to stash the buttons for another project! If the shirt is giant compared to your hips, you will probably want to trim the edge more so it fits over your hips with a couple of inches to spare.

Hem the top and bottom.

Now for the ruffles! You want 4 pieces that are approximately 10cm wide, and the length 1 1/2 times the width of your under skirt from the remaining shirt fabric. You will also want one the same size from your patterned fabric. You will also want one other piece from the patterned material the same width but the length only needs be as long as your under skirt is wide.

Hem top and bottom of each long side on the 5 long strips, but only the bottom needs hemming on the shorter patterned piece.

Pass each through the ruffler  foot on the sewing machine. I used the deepest pleat setting on every 12th stitch with an average stitch length. To make this skirt without a ruffler foot, you can sew a long stitch length then gently pull the tread ends to gather the fabric to the desired amount. Be careful though as pulling too hard can make the thread snap.

Now here comes the fun part - piecing it all together. Start with the shorter piece. Place it right side facing your main section and sew a seam right along the top.

Flip the patterned piece over and top stitch along the top edge. I used an over-edge sewing machine foot as my guide to sew the top stitch at 1/8th inch distance.

Now using a temporary fabric marker, draw yourself lines about every 7-8cm. There needs to be a slight overlap of ruffles.

Line each ruffled strip up with a line and sew in place.

Now take a piece of elastic and try it around your waist. Cut to the desired length and line up centrally underneath the top patterned piece.

Pin in place centrally, then gently stretch and pin in place on each side so the ends of the elastic reach the ends of the fabric.

Sew the elastic in place top and bottom using a 3 step zig zag stitch while keeping the stretch on the elastic (standard zig zag is less able to move with the elastic).

Fold the patterned piece back over and sew a running stitch under the elastic line to form a casing for the elastic. In retrospect, I should also have sewn another line of running stitch to hold the top piece covering the top ruffle seam as this has a tendency of getting folded up on wearing.


Fold the skirt in half with ruffles facing inwards and pin the side seam.

Trim away any excess down the side then sew your side seam and overstitch the edge to prevent fraying.

Turn it the other way around and look pleased with yourself!

We hope you enjoy our tutorials and love hearing what you think so please leave us a comment or send me an email to linda@sewingbeefabrics.co.uk

 

How to use a Ruffler Sewing Machine Foot

Sewing Bee Fabrics Tutorial

How To Use A Ruffler Sewing Machine Foot

Many people are scared off from using the ruffler foot because it looks much more intimidating than clip on sewing machine feet, but let me assure you,  not only is it easy to use, but it's great fun! You can buy them from HERE

To attach it to the machine, you will need to remove not just your standard foot, but also the part it clips to so you are just left with the pole. You will need to unscrew the current foot to remove it. The bottom claw like part slides around the pole, and the upper part on the ruffler that looks like a lobster claw attaches around the part you would unscrew to change needles. This lets the ruffler foot 'count' your stitches allowing you to set pleats/ruffles at different intervals.

From the other side:

Line the screw hole up and use your screw driver to secure the ruffler in place.

This is a really adjustable foot, so your likely to want some scrap fabric to pay with before going straight onto your project. You have 2 dials. On the top setting facing you are these options - *, 1, 6, 12.

* = Straight running stitch as if you have no fancy foot attached
1 = Every stitch is a ruffle
6 = Every 6th stitch is a ruffle
12 = Every 12th stitch is a ruffle.

Don't forget your stitch length with affect how far apart your ruffles will be too.

The other dial is for adjusting the depth of the ruffle. This allows you to make anything from a slight ruffle to a pleat. I find that in general, the narrower the piece of fabric, the smaller the pleat depth I
prefer. However on wider strips of fabric the small depth ruffle can look a little lost, so you would need to plan how to use it best for example it would however look good for a subtle wave on a skirt but not so much for a decorative edge.

To make a ruffle to add to your project, take a strip of fabric. If your fabric is prone to fraying, you will find it much easier to hem before ruffling (either hemmed top and bottom or folded along the long edge and the raw edge hemmed at the top or bound with bias binding). The length you need will vary depending on the settings you choose, but on average you will need 1 1/2 - 2 1/2 times the length you want to fill. You might want to measure a small piece to pass through then measure the resulting ruffled piece to find out what percentage you loose.

Pass the fabric through the ruffler foot being careful not to snag any dedicate fabrics on the serrated edge. You may find it helps to pull it through diagonally or wider than desired then adjust it.

You may need to gently lift the serrated part to position your fabric more easily but be careful not to force it. You can very gently use your sewing machine screw driver. You are only looking to lift the tip away from the material edge and no higher.

Make sure the edge of the fabric is just passed the needle as you would with any other foot, then your ready to start sewing.

Begin sewing with your desired settings! Watch your fingers as you need to keep in mind every ruffle will involve the foot suddenly pulling through extra fabric. You can see how the part with the serrated edge moves forwards and pushes the fabric forwards under the foot to create the ruffle.

This gives you an example of how different your fabric can turn out just by changing the ruffle depth - everything from a light ripple to a heavy pleat.

And this gives you an idea of how different it can come out depending on how often you ruffle - and how that can vary even more just by changing the stitch length. So I really can't say enough - experiment first then go for it!

Now here's the bit where this foot gets really clever! You can ruffle and sew onto flat fabric at the same time! Simply set the foot up as before ready to ruffle, but this time, put the piece of fabric you want to attach it to underneath the entire foot.

The ruffler will pull the top section through as the feed dogs pull the bottom through letting you fix your ruffles directly to your fabric. Just be careful how many layers or how thick a fabric you use. I would recommend having a practice first. I would also go at a slow speed otherwise the force of
the ruffler pulling the top fabric through can pull it out of alignment with the bottom fabric.

Then all you need to do is decide which project needs ruffling next!

 

We hope you enjoy our tutorials and love hearing what you think so please leave us a comment or send me an email to linda@sewingbeefabrics.co.uk

Make your own thread rack

Sewing Bee Fabrics Tutorial

Wall Mounted Thread Rack

Ok, so strictly speaking this isn't a sewing tutorial, but I needed some more space and my threads seem to wind themselves around each other every time I close the draw so it was time to move them!


This wall mounted thread rack will hold 42 threads and their matching bobbins.


What materials you will need:
A plank of wood (Mine was approx 14cm wide and I cut it down to 90cm length)
Wood glue
4 Wall plugs
4 Screws
42 6mm dowels
6mm wooden rod (You'll need 252cm to have all 42 as full spindles. Mine was only 240 so I just popped 2 dowels into the bottom ends).


What tools you will need:
Saw (only if you need to trim your plank of wood down).
Drill
Sandpaper
Screwdriver
Hammer
Garden secateurs




How I made it:
First, I trimmed my plank of wood down to 90cm

Next, I figured out how I wanted to space out my threads, so I took the widest threads I am likely to want up there and measured. I found the best for me was to mark 2cm in for each corner for a screw, then start marking where I want my thread spindles from 5cm from each edge. This leave you with 80cm in the middle.


I marked 4 lines right along the length of the plank, at 3cm, 6cm, 10cm and 13cm. On these lines, I made markings every 4cm. So, including the beginning and end point, this makes 21 marks on each line.

I used a 6mm drill bit and marked the drill with a sticky label at just over 1cm. I used this as a guide to stop drilling to make sure all holes were about the same depth and none went through the plank. Also drill holes through the plank in the corners for your screws. The hole size will depend on your screw size. Make it fit as snug as possible.

Next cut up your 6mm wooden rod into 6cm sections. I found that garden secateurs were best for this. I just made sure I cut part way then turned it to avoid squashing the end.

Next I sanded down the edges around my drilling and the edge of the rods that would be facing out with a bit of sandpaper

Apply a little glue to the end of the rod and push into the drill holes. You will want the 1st and 3rd row made up of rods and the 2nd and 4th row made up with dowels.


To get them all looking even, I used a piece of cardboard as a marker to push them all down to the same height.

For the small dowels, I just gave them a tap with the hammer with some glue already in the hole. Don't forget to wipe off any excess glue as you go.

Wait for the glue to dry then paint it

To fix it to the wall, screw the screws in so that the ends are about level with the end of the plank. Then holding it to the wall where you want it, screw the screws into the wall to leave marks. This will then be your drill guide. Screw the thread stand into place with wall plugs in place.

Now all that is left is to add your threads then look incredibly smug with yourself!

We hope you enjoy our tutorials and love hearing what you think so please leave us a comment or send me an email to linda@sewingbeefabrics.co.uk
Happy Sewing!