How to Make Ruffled Clothing

Ruffles can be pleated, gathered, cascading or worked by increasing or decreasing needlework.

A ruffle is a gathered or pleated fabric, and you can make ruffled clothing of the same or a of complementary fabric, build the ruffle out by multiplying crochet stitches, or build it inward by decreasing the stitches in knitting.

Things You'll Need

• 6 yards wide satin ribbon
• Scissors
• Hand-sewing needle
• Contrasting thread
• Woven cotton button-front blouse
• Iron
• Dressmaker pins
• Threaded sewing machine
• 3 squares cotton jersey, 18 inches each side
• 3 cotton T-shirts
• Small ball crochet cotton, Size 5
• Size H (5 mm) crochet hook
• Pair of size 8 (5 mm) knitting needles

Instructions

Beribboned Shirt

1. Cut four equal lengths of ribbon.

2. Run a basting thread along one edge of each of two of the pieces. Draw up each thread until the ribbon is the same length as the front of the shirt where you want the ruffle. Knot the threads.

3. Use one of the gathered ribbons to measure the others. Pinch the middle of the flat ribbon and fold the pinch over; pin this pleat. Make pleats, evenly spaced, until the ribbon is the same length as the gathered one. Pleat and pin the last ribbon to match. Press the pleats in.

4. Pin the gathered ribbons along the front of the shirt and stitch them down. Remove the basting threads.

5. Pin the pleated ribbons to the shirt front, overlapping the gathered ribbons. Stitch straight down the middle of each pleated ribbon.

Cascade T-Shirt

1. Cut out a circle the full diameter of each of the three jersey squares. Cut a smaller circle inside each large one to make a thick ring. Cut straight across each ring on one side.

2. Open one of the circles, pull the innermost edge straight, and pin it down the middle of the T-shirt. Stitch it down close to the edge using a shallow and long machine zig-zag stitch.

3. Open the other two circles and place them evenly spaced to each side of the first and keeping their outside edges free.

Crocheted Ruffle T-Shirt

1. 

   Start a crocheted ruffle with a long foundation chain.

   Make a foundation chain in crochet cotton long enough to go all the way around the bottom hem of the T-shirt. Make two more chain stitches.

2. Work a single crochet in the third chain from the hook. Chain one, skip one stitch in the foundation chain, and single crochet in the next chain. Repeat to the end of the foundation chain. Chain three and turn.

3. Work three double crochets in each chain, one space across the row. Cut and tie off the thread.

4. Sew the ruffle to the bottom hem of the T-shirt.

Knitted T-Shirt Ruffle

1. Cast on enough stitches to fill the knitting needle to match one fourth the T-shirt's hem with the stitches bunched together. Count the stitches and cast on three times as many more.

2. Knit 5, purl 11 and repeat across the first row, ending with knit 5; cast on additional stitches or drop a few to make it come out even. This is a wrong-side row.

3. Purl 5, knit 2 together; knit 7; use the tip of the right needle to lift the second stitch on the left needle over the near stitch. Repeat this series across the second row, ending with purl 5.

4. Work the third row without decreasing: knit 5, purl 9 across, ending with knit 5. Work the fourth row as you did the second, decreasing one stitch at the beginning and one at the end of the knitted stitches. Repeat these two rows twice more, then work another wrong-side row as knit 5, purl 3 across, ending with knit 5.

5. Finish the ruffle with a final decrease: purl 5, slip 2 stitches unworked from the left to the right needle, knit 1 and pass the slipped stitches over the one just knitted.

6. Check the ruffle for fit with the bottom of the T-shirt. Work three rows of stockinette stitch, increasing or decreasing evenly spaced across the rows to adjust. Bind off.

7. Machine stitch the ruffle to the hem of the T-shirt.

Resources

• Craft Yarn Council Learning Center: Getting Started