Petticoat; part 2

Ruffle Assembly

So at this point you've got every thing cut... Yes?

We've got:
3 yokes
6 main ruffles
And 24 edge ruffles.

If you use a rotary cutter this will go pretty quick. But if you don't, mark your lines with some tailors chalk (wax) to make the cutting easier.

Ruffling without a fancy foot

Tricot is kinda like sewing air. This can be good and it can be frustrating. If you play with the stitch length, needle tension, and for some way odd reason sew speed, it will gather. I suggest to you to do a test. These instructions are meant for a ruffle to be reduced by half (an 8" fabric into a 4" ruffle). Have a go. If it's not working for you, there are tons of other ways to gather fabric. You can zig zag over a cord, pull a thread of long stitching, use a gathering, or ruffle foot... Etc.


Start Sewing!
Edge Ruffles
Once you've got your gathering method figured out, start by gathering all of the edge ruffles. By the end you'll have a satisfactory little cloud of puff.





Yokes and Main Ruffle Assembly

Next sew into tubes all three yokes. And sew together the six main ruffles into three tubes using two main ruffle pieces a tube. So three yokes and three main ruffles.

Finishing Main Ruffle

Next sew the edge ruffles to the main ruffle using a 1/4" seam allowance.








When you come to an end of an edge ruffle just place another on top and keep going. If you did your ruffle test right you'll use 4 edge ruffles per side. When you've finished one side turn the main ruffle around and sew edge ruffles to the other side. When done it should look like this:





Now gather up the center of the main ruffle. I did this in two sections. Going from seam to seam on the front main ruffle section, and seam to seam on the back main ruffle section. Leave lots and lots of thread. This is so you can pull the thread to make the gathering tighter, and have plenty thread to let out if the ruffle is too tight. By having two sections to pull from your giving yourself tons of wiggle room.










It should be said the the main ruffle gets folded an half and is actually two ruffles in one.






That pictures upside down BTW.

Attach Main Ruffle to the Yoke
Ok, now your going to sew the main ruffle to the yoke, using 1/2 seam allowance.

This bit is drama.

The best advice I can give is to mark the yokes center front, by folding the yoke in half. Pin one of the main ruffles seams on the seam of the yoke and the other main ruffle seam on the center mark you've just made. Play with your main ruffles gathers until the main ruffle fits on the yoke. Pin it in place and sew the main ruffle to the yoke.











I'm trying to show the seam allowance there... 1/2" on the yoke, and your just sewing right down where the gathering threads are.










This is the finished ruffle assembly. Your going to make 3 of these.

Ok.. Next blog post will be attaching the ruffle assemblies to a waistband. Good times!



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