Ruffled Slip: Tutorial

Remember this Shabby Apple dress I posted about HERE?  I love the dress–hubby especially loves the dress.

However, when I sat down in it, the dress would hike up and it wasn’t a comfortable length for me.  Going to church with 3 little kids and a dress that could potentially be pulled up even further = me not paying attention like I should be because I’m too worried about my dress ;) .  I’d been meaning to attach a ruffle to a slip since I wore it the first time and just barely got around to it last week.  

You could certainly use a wide piece of gathered lace or trim, which would be beautiful, and in fact I’ve seen those for sale and lace would be easier.  But I wanted gray and I wanted to make a little waist sash to match perfectly.  So I just used a slip and sheer fabric.

Since I had a pencil shaped dress that the slip needed to fit under, I made sure that my slip would work and wouldn’t be too full for the dress.  I didn’t have a long enough piece to gather to only have one seam on the ruffle, so I gathered two separate ruffles so the seams would be at the side.  Measure the bottom of your slip and double that for the ruffle length—it will be really long.  If your strip isn’t long enough for only one seam on the ruffle, cut that length in half and make two ruffles.  For the width I measured from my slip to my knee while sitting down to make sure it would be long enough, adding enough to allow for the bit sewn onto the slip.  (I hope that makes sense!  Email me if it doesn’t because it’s hard to explain!)

Since it was sheer fabric, I wanted to double the fabric.  So fold your long fabric piece in half lengthwise.

Zig-zag stitch or serge the long edge.

And gather—I feel like I cheat and just change the tension to a high number and this is what happens below.  But you could baste stitch and gather if you prefer.  I take the easy way out while gathering, these days.

Repeat for other strip of fabric (unless you had a long enough piece to have only one seam, which could be placed at the back of the slip).

Sew the ruffle together on just one of the short sides (I serged mine so it won’t fray—you can sew and finish the edge with a zig-zag stitch if needed). 

Start at one side of the slip and place the seam from the ruffled fabric (from step above) there.

Starting at the side seam, I sewed the ruffle to the underneath of the slip.  What you see below is the right side of the slip, so it’s like I’m topstitching the ruffle onto the slip.  I did this so the serged edges would be hidden on the inside of the slip.

Just sew until you reach the other side of the slip, where your other ruffle seam will fall.  Once there, start again at the seam (same one you started with above) and sew the ruffle onto the remaining part of the slip.

Once you’ve made it to the other side, sew and zig-zag, or serge that side seam to finish attaching the ruffle onto the slip.  (again, this is another one I found hard to explain—if you need clarification, I’d be happy to help).

My matching belt sash thing, that didn’t exactly turn out how I wanted but it was late and I didn’t care much at that point ;). 

So the before length which is fine standing but too short sitting…

…and the after.  Crazy how a new camera can really change the color in your pictures!  This one below is a much better representation of the real color!

Linking to Tea Rose Home, Sew Much Ado, Tatertots and Jell-O, and Someday Crafts  linky parties.

Raspberry Creek Fabrics giveaway for 4 yards of fabric still open:  click HERE!