Wednesday, April 14, 2010

The Ruffles Are Done




I ended up taking my sewing machine in to get tuned up (which took 3 weeks) before I finished Emme's pettiskirt, mostly because that ruffle foot is a beast of a contraption, as you can see above. It's really jerky by nature, and my machine was having a hard time with it but now it runs like a dream!

For anyone who's interested in making a pettiskirt of their own, my advice would be to skip the hassle and just buy one here! I think it would have been about the same price I paid to make this one, minus the scratching of my eyes out.

But if you're a glutton for punishment, here's a general overview of how to make one:
  1. Buy non-fraying nylon chiffon in 2", 3" or 4" rolls here, as well as some satin or acetate and elastic for your waistband. (I used acetate for the waistband, 3" rolls for tiers 1 and 2, and 2" rolls for tier 3.)
  2. Then simply run the entire roll through your ruffle foot until you have one long strip, completely ruffled. (Don't be deceived -- it's not simple like it sounds. The chiffon is thin and tricky. But once you get your ruffler on a roll, don't stop...even though the rolls are forever long!)
  3. Cut a piece of satin for your waistband 8" tall and the desired waist measurement plus 6" wide, and then attach your first ruffle to the bottom of each side. (The skirt is double-layered to create the desired fullness.)
  4. Attach the second ruffle to the bottom of the first. (If your ruffle foot is set at a 6:1 ratio, that means you will need 6 times as much ruffle for tier 2 as you did for tier 1.)
  5. Attach the third and smallest ruffle to the bottom of tier 2. (So you will need 6 times as much ruffle for tier 3 as you did for tier 2. See why we ruffle the whole roll? You need a lot of ruffle!)
  6. Once you've finished attaching three tiers to each side of your satin base, sew the ends together (to make the skirt loop) and add elastic for the waistband.
  7. Voila! Gorgeous pettiskirt.

I ended up sewing 3 tiers to the outside layer of my skirt and only 2 tiers to the inside layer of my skirt (sewing on that third tier makes me want to scratch my eyes out -- it takes forever!). Using one 60 yard roll of 3" chiffon and one 90 yard roll of 2" chiffon, this made two skirts. They were both for very young girls (6 months and 24 months). If I were to make one toddler-sized, I'd probably use 4" and 3" rolls, to make the skirt longer and poofier.

I hope this helps! Let me know if anyone still has questions.

3 comments:

V said...

...but you did it. That is quite a feat. And Emme's pettiskirt is adorable.

Emily Heizer Photography said...

It looks SO So awesome and perfect! You did a great job! Wow!

Shayna @ Texas Monkey said...

Great job, I'm wanting to add these to sell in my store but the time and amount I'd spend making one I'd have to charge a fortune and it wouldn't sell anyways. Yours came out beautiful.