Adding Ruffles to a Strapless Dress
A strapless dress is already an eye-catching design. However, in many cases, the sheath-like style tends toward the basic. If you're up for a simple sewing project, it's fairly easy to jazz up the look with a few well-placed ruffles. Position your frilly new accents to draw attention to your best features, highlighting curves or slimming your overall silhouette.
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Basic Ruffle Making
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Ruffles are little more than strips of fabric that have been sewn into an evenly gathered pattern. By varying your material's color and texture and the fullness of your gathers, you can create ruffles with a range of looks. Particularly if you are using a sewing machine, making ruffles is a fairly simple process, appropriate for beginners. To create the look, first scrunch a broad strip of material into an even gather. You can easily accomplish this by sewing two layers of fabric together along two parallel seams. Thread a cord in between the seams and scrunch the fabric together along the cord. Finish off the ruffle by pinning the fabric into place while it's gathered and sewing another seam straight across.
An Alternative Approach
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Provided your ruffles are purely decorative, you can get away with fairly simple sewing techniques that wouldn't be appropriate for functional seams that need to withstand greater stresses. As a more simple alternative to the basic ruffle technique, sew a straight line across a strip of fabric, without reversing over the ends of your seam. Hold the loose ends of the threads taut in your fingers and scrunch the fabric together with your other hand. Tie off the loose threads to finish off the ruffle.
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Ruffle Placement
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Where you place the ruffles is as important as how you design them. A strapless dress already draws the eye toward the bust. If you want to accent a voluptuous figure or add some volume to a smaller bust, add a line or two of ruffles for an ultra-feminine look. If you're looking to balance a pear-shaped figure, add several layers of ruffles to the upper half of the dress. If you have an apple-shaped body, line the hem of your dress with a few ruffles to draw the eye downward.
Color and Texture
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Ruffles can add detail and complexity to a dress in several ways. Depending on the type of fabric you choose and how you size the ruffles, you can use them to create contrast in color and texture. For a peek-a-boo look, use a stiff fabric to create a band of ruffles peeking up from underneath the neckline of your dress. If you want to draw attention to your legs, you can do the same with a flouncy fabric at the bottom hem. For a subtler look, make ruffles out of your dress fabric. The more subtle look is especially appropriate for a line of ruffles at the waist, which can help to define a narrow waist without adding excessive volume.
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