Ruffled Lane Shirt Tutorial - J Crew Love

>>>This is a tutorial originally done for my old blog, it was posted October 24, 2010, so it's not new. I hope you don't mind? It seemed to be a favourite over that way and since the ol' blog is gone, finito, forgotten, I thought I'd share it with you all. (This is when I wish I was Texan so I can drawl "y'all" and not feel like a poser! HA!) <<<

Today, we will be inspired by J Crew. Imitation is the greatest form of flattery, no?

This is what we'll be making today...

 J Crew...originally $42.50!

Made by me...for $7.00...how's that for saving!?

 YOU WILL NEED:

-A long sleeve tee, preferably a jersey cotton so you don't have to do seams and not worry about fraying (you can get a new one, but this would work well with an old on you're bored of or is stained down the front)

-sewing machine

-thread :)

-pins

-scissors

Easy ,so far right?

HERE WE GO!

Take your long sleeve tee...and cut off the sleeves to create shorter sleeves.

(NOTE* I chose to cut of the sleeves because I don't mind making it short sleeved, but if you wanted to keep 'em, you'll be needing a second shirt of the same fabric to cut up for the ruffle part)

Next, you cut of the sleeve hem...this part here in the picture...

Once you've done that, fold it in half...

Then, you're going to cut the sides edges so that you'll have a even shaped rectangle...

Here, I've already cut the opposite edge...

Open them up and you should have this...

Okay, now RIGHT SIDES together and pin at ONE end...do that to both...

You'll now have this...

Sew along the edge where you've placed your pins...

You should now have this....remove pins...

And open, laying flat, seam part down...

Set your machine at the longest stitch length...

And sew all the way UP both edges of one strip and up only ONE side for the other...

.NOTE* For the one where you'll only sew one side...sew it on the RIGHT edge...WRONG SIDE DOWN.

Leave a piece of long thread when you finish sewing up sides.



**See, here...the one on the right has been sewn up both edge (kinda like a hem) making it all bumpy like that. The one on the left, has been sewn up only ONE side...allowing the other side to lay flat**

Now, you're going to gather it. You take the long thread you left and pull on the one that gives more easily. Just play around with it till you get it...it doesn't have to be neat.

It should be bunching up, like so....

This is the one with the one sewn side...I cut scallops into the side NOT SEWN...to make it prettier....

gather this one like I just mentioned...

This is what you should end up with...

The left one looks like a "C" shape because, we only gathered one side :)

Place on shirt...you can tell that right now it's too short...

Fold the top part of the ruffled piece...attach with pins...and then begin CAREFULLY and SLOWLY...pulling at the fabric to make loosen the gathering, therefore, creating a longer piece of fabric...

When you've done that...it should look like this...make sure you arrange the gathers to look the way you want them, so there are no gaps or flat parts...

Pin on the right side of gathered fabric....like so...

Take your other piece of fabric (the "C" shaped one), lay it on shirt....hmm...too small...but you know what to do!

Slowly and careful, loosen gather and stretch out the fabric to make it longer...

When it is the size of the front of the tee, slide it UNDER your un-pinned side...the gathered section should be what's showing...making it look like the ruffles are part of the whole thing...

See how it's UNDER the main piece?

Pin it down being careful to get the ruffled piece properly aligned with the top gathered piece.

Only the top piece should show. So hide that ruffle gather underneath!

SEW! Start at top corner...

Then turn and go all the way down...basically sewing a rectangle to secure the gathered piece and ruffles all at once. Finish at the corner you started...securing well. Snip. Cut. Done.

It should look like this when done...

See how pretty?

And that, my dears...is it! A brand new shirt in 30 mins! That is, if you can get away from the kids that long!

I know, the pictures are terrible! The shirt is black, not gray! But it was done at 3am and moonlight? Not so great for pictures!

And this is a picture of me (looking like a total and complete doofus) wearing a similar tee that I made for my SIL. I had just had a baby, so don't mind the extra junk in my trunk! At least the tee's very forgiving!

I'd love to hear what you think...enjoy!

As usual, you can find this tutorial under the "Tutorials" Tab at the top, under:

LINKED TO:

THESE great parties!