ruffled singlet/tank top tutorial

Recently I had a go at making a boring blue singlet look more interesting by adding a cute little ruffle with a fabric panel on top. The results can be found here in an earlier post when I was in 'experimenting' mode. It turned out pretty well I thought, so I decided to make a little tutorial to show you how easy it is to add a ruffle to your singlet/tank top.

Here is a picture of the final result:

Materials:

• boring, plain singlet/tank top
• fabric strips for ruffle (length and width to suit your desired ruffle)
• contrasting fabric strip for middle panel
• buttons, ribbon or other additions of your choice

gather your materials

Step one: measure your tank top

First thing to do is to measure the length of the area you would like the ruffles to go. Mine will be covering up some buttons and is 5 inches long (12.5cm).

measure the length of desired ruffle

Take this measurement and times by 2 to allow for the fabric to gather into a ruffle.

My final measurement is therefore 10 inches (25cm).

Next we need to work out how wide we would like each ruffle to be. I measured from the middle of the buttons (as this is the centre of the singlet)  and got 2.5 inches (6.25cm)

measure desired width from middle of singlet

Take this measurement and times by 2, then add seam allowance, (1/2 an inch/1cm or so) to your width.

My width was therefore 5.5 inches in total (about 14cm)

N.B You probably know your own seam allowances so feel free to moderate and ignore me if necessary. (Please note also, I'm Australian so my understanding of inches and divisions of inches is pretty poor!)

Next we need to work out a measurement for our middle panel, which will be hiding all the raw edges of the ruffles.

The panel length will be the same as your original length (5inches/12.5cm) + seam allowance.

The width is entirely up to you, it just needs to be wide enough to hide your raw ruffle edges. I measured my singlet and decided on a width of 2 inches + seam allowance. I don't have a photo for this step but you can work it out.

Step 2: cut your fabric

using these measurements cut out 2 ruffle pieces and 2 panel pieces.

cut out your ruffle pieces and panel pieces

 Step 3: prepare ruffle and panel

Fold ruffle pieces lengthways right sides together. pin.

place panel pieces right sides together and pin.

pin fabric

On the ruffle pieces, stitch the short ends of each piece ONLY. Turn the ruffle pieces the right way out and press the seam and the long folded edge.

On the panel piece, stitch around all 4 sides leaving a GAP on one long side to turn it out the right way. (makes sure you backstitch at the start and finish of your gap to reinforce it.) Turn the panel piece the right way out and press the seams.

turn pieces right side out and press

Step 4: embellish your panel piece

Stitch your buttons, ribbon or other chosen embellishment onto your fabric panel.

add your embellishments to the pane

Step 5: make your ruffles

To make a ruffle, loosen the tension on your sewing machine to the loosest setting. Select your longest stitch. I also increase the stitch width as it helped it to gather better for me, but I'm not sure if this is the same for every machine (test it first on some scrap fabric). 

Make sure you have a long tail of cotton coming out of your machine before you start sewing so you have something to pull on at the end.

Stitch along the long, raw edge of one of your ruffle pieces. Leave a long tail at the other end so you can pull it.

NB: don't backstitch at either end of your ruffle as you want to be able to pull the threads easily.

Repeat with your other ruffle.

You should now have two long ruffle pieces with long cotton tails. To really gather up your ruffle, find the top thread at each end and pull the fabric along the thread until it gathers to your desired length. Don't knot the cotton tails just yet.

gather your ruffle pieces

Step 6: line up and stitch your pieces

Place your ruffle pieces alongside your panel piece and check the lengths. You want the raw edges of your ruffles to be completely hidden by the sides of your panel, so you may need to adjust the lengths by pulling the tails again.

When you're happy with the lengths, tie a knot in each end of the ruffle piece to hold them in place.

line up and adjust ruffle to fit under panel

You can see my ruffles are curved because of the gathering. don't worry, you can pin it straight and it will sit in place nicely with the panel on top.

Time to stitch it onto your tank top!

Place your ruffles on your tank on either side of the centre. Don't pin. Mine sit on either side of the row of buttons like so:

Place ruffles onto singlet

Place your fabric panel on top and pin around the outside, trapping the ruffles carefully underneath.

Pin panel to singlet

Top stitch around the edge of the fabric panel. (don't forget to put your tension and stitch length back to its normal position before you start).

Give your panel and the ruffles a little press. Done!

This is totally customisable for any size singlet and would be cute for a little girl's top too. The possibilities are endless with fabric type and embellishments and also length of ruffles and type of top you use too.

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial, feedback is always welcome!

Angry Birds are go! Part 4- The finale

In our final instalment of the adventures in Angry Bird costume making (or 'Avian Fury' as we have dubbed it) we come to the end of what has been a really fun and sometimes hilarious sewing project.

If you'd like to skip to the part where you learn how to make your own costume, I've written a tutorial which can be found here. 

Anyway, those darling cross eyed birds really get into your heart, and have even been found flapping around in my dreams. Last night I woke up with a fright because I thought my curtains were the big black Angry Bird looming over the bed. Scary!

We left off last time after I had finished the red bird costume and given it to the boys to test out. We went to a nearby park so the boys could run around and see just how hot it is to wear a pillow in the middle of the day.

Here's a little montage of those pics, taken as usual by Mr Elegantpaws.

After much fun and laughing at Seb running around like a crazy person, I went away and bought the rest of the fabric, 5 bags of polyfill, some felt and some vliesofix to attach the face pieces to the body.

I got to work on the yellow bird and black bird, cutting fabric, stitching on the bellies, making the front pillow form piece and the back piece. Our cats Claude and Madeleine decided to chip in by sitting on the pattern pieces as I tried to position them correctly, or helpfully rolling around on the fabric covering it in fur.

I got there in the end, with only a few mistakes and one near disaster which I managed to recover from.

Here are some photos to give you an idea of the process.

the patterns

Madeleine enjoying the yellow bird

pinning the lining to the main fabric

cutting out the fabric using a rotary wheel

Madeleine being cute

nom nom nom I love rope

We all decided it would be good for the boys to come over for a little 'working bee' to help finish off the costumes. This way they could get creative and  contribute to the end result making wearing them all the more special.

To prepare for the working bee, I traced all the face pieces onto the Vliesofix so all they needed to do was cut them out, fuse them onto felt, cut them out again and fuse the face pieces onto the body of the costume.

Here are some pics of Josh and Seb working it and the cats continuing to enjoy the costumes. They love fabric!

Josh gets cozy with the iron

attaching the face

Seb irons on his face while the other birds chill out

Madeleine and the yellow bird face off

Claude emerges from the red bird's arm...

The final stages involved stuffing the remaining birds (then pulling some of the stuffing out as it was too tightly packed and VERY heavy) and stiching up the gap in the seams. Done!

Here are some photos of me having fun in my creations. I am really happy with how they turned out.

D day: Playground Weekender Costume Night

All reports from the festival suggest a fun time was had by all. The boys managed to get me a few snaps and I was happy to hear the reaction from other festival goers was enthusiastic! The costumes did turn out to be really hot (given that it was 30 degrees all weekend i'm not surprised!) but they held up well and the boys enjoyed their time as crazy, squawking crossed eyed Angry Birds.Win!

Here are some pics from the festival:

I like the one where they're kicking back with Fred Flintstone. 

So, boys and girls, we have come to the end of our adventures in Angry Bird costume making. It was fun seeing it all come together slowly and I definitely learned a thing or two about sewing. 

I hope you enjoyed the story and feel inspired to make your own one day!

Let me know what you think of the end results!!

embroidery hoop wall art- tutorial

 I love the idea of displaying your favourite pieces of fabric in your home as cushion covers, curtains and as wall art. A simple (and inexpensive) way of doing this is by using wooden embroidery hoops. These can be found in places like Spotlight and Lincraft, but more cheaply on Ebay.

Here is an example of embroidery hoop wall art I found over at ohdeedoh.  I love the quirky combination of fabrics and the way they frame the mirror.  

After being inspired, I decided to try and make my own embroidery hoop wall art as a gift for a friend's birthday and thought a little tutorial might help to illustrate just how easy it is.

Materials:

1. embroidery hoop, any size you like 
2. cute fabric
3. fabric fray stop (optional)

First, take the inside ring of your embroidery hoop and place it over the area you would like to feature in your frame.

Cut around it generously. I used a rotary cutter and left about 1 inch. this enables you to stretch it more easily and get it into the exact position you want.



place inside ring on fabric, cut around it generously

 

Put the fabric over the inside ring and pop the outside hoop on top. Position the fabric and tighten the knob until the fabric is taut between the two rings. You will probably need to pull it at various points around the ring to smooth out some of the 'bubbles' that appear.



 stretch the fabric taught with your fingers

 

When you're happy with it, trim the excess fabric from the ring close to the hoop edge. At this point, I also ran some fabric fray stop over the fabric edge, but I guess you could also use some thin tape to cover it up.

trim fabric close to the edge

Attach a piece of ribbon or twine at the top for hanging and you're done!
 You can customise them for anyone's taste which is nice. My friend likes all things cute and Japanese. I hope she likes them!

embroidery hoop wall art ready to hang!

I am looking forward to making some for myself! Happy crafting! x

ruffled singlet experiment

I am a big fan of girly ruffles. They look cute on tops, layered in skirts and they never seem to go out of fashion. I  like that ruffles can be worn casually with a cropped little cardi or dressed up with some cute pearls and a hair flower. I hope they never go out of vogue!

Recently I stumbled across Ruffles and Stuff and was inspired by Disney's way of re-fashioning clothes and jewellery using ruffles, pearls and all things girly. She has put up some lovely tutorials for a variety of projects, but I decided to test my sewing skills and try to make a ruffled embellishment for one of my plain and boring singlets without help.

Here are the results:

I am happy with how it turned out, even though I ran into some issues. I forgot the cardinal rule of ruffling- make sure you have enough length as the fabric will bunch up when it's gathered. Duh.
Anyway, I managed to fix it and get it to a state where I would be happy to wear it.

The middle piece is a fabric I adore and have been sitting on for 6 months trying to work out how I can use it. I found the lovely lace at Spotlight and I like the way it ties it together.

Next time, I'll make longer ruffles with lots of gathers so they pop out. I'll also experiment with different trims like ribbon and buttons to see what other looks I can create.

Stay tuned for a tutorial on how to add a cute little ruffle to your own boring singlet.

Yay for ruffles!

Angry birds are go! Part 3

The adventures in Angry Birds costume making continues with some exciting developments. I completed one bird successfully (without the usual accompaniment of swearing/tantrums when I am trying something new) and had fun trying on the costume and dancing around like a lunatic.

The boys were happy with the results, so this week i'll be madly sewing the other two before they all come over on Sunday to help with the finishing touches.

Now I don't want to give it all away before the festival, but I will include a few pics of the sewing process captured by Karl as it came together last week.

Carefully sewing....

concentrating....

'Argh! I should have sewed this part earlier!'

Next episode... The final results!