Hi everyone, my name is Cathy and I am so excited to be here today.
I want to thank Diana for asking me to
I made for my very "girly girl" granddaughter.
As you can see it makes quite a statement on a bed.
It is so fun and very "girly girl"....
It was not that difficult to make
but,
very time consuming
and...
it did tax my brain to do the math to figure out
all the dimensions.
( Math never was my forte.)
I hope I have been able to explain it so it is understandable...
Ruffled Spread Tutorial:
I bought 5 yards of 44" wide pink cotton quilting fabric
for the ruffles.
I wanted to sew my ruffles on a base
and
didn't want to have to measure and cut and sew to make it.
So, I decided to use a twin sheet for the base.
A twin comforter measures 66" x86".
A twin sheet is a little longer at 96" in length but the added dimension
insures coverage with a nice over hang at the bottom.
Note: I use sheets for lots of household sewing.
There is nothing better for lots of yardage, easy care and durability
at a very small cost.
The only problem I was having with the sheet idea was finding the
right shade of pink.
So, I had to buy a white sheet - at Wal-Mart for $5
and
dyed it pink.
Thus, I had my base for the ruffles
and
no cutting was necessary.
Next I cut 17 ruffles from the pink cotton fabric.
These ruffles were 7" x 99".
I wanted 6" wide ruffles so a 7" strip gave me 1" to serge, hem and gather .
I always cut my ruffles 1 1/2 times the length of the fabric I am sewing them on.
This makes just the right amount of gathering on the ruffle that I like
I then proceeded to serge both sides of each ruffle.
This is not difficult just takes a while.
This is what a pile of 17 serged ruffles looks like....
Now the fun part.
I hemmed one side of each ruffle 1/4".
The other side I left unhemmed and ran a basting stitch down the length of it
to gather it with.
( If you have a ruffler for your machine - you will want to use it.
I do not and there is no budget for one at this time.)
I also just read a really great tip on using dental floss for gathering fabric.
I then pulled the threads by hand and gathered the ruffles the old fashioned way.
I don't mind doing it this way
as I watch TV while I do it.
Next, I laid the twin sheet out on the bed
( the only large flat surface that I could lay it out on.)
and proceeded to pin the ruffle to the sheet.
I let the ruffle overhang the bottom edge of the sheet about 1 inch.
I didn't want the edge of the sheet showing.
Then I stitched along the top of the ruffle about 1/4" from the edge.
There is a lot of fabric to handle here and can be a little
challenging at times.
I just took my time and made sure everything was pinned
very well.
I then continued to pin each ruffle in place.
making sure the hem portion of each ruffle
overlapped the seam line on the previous ruffle by about 1/2".
It takes a while to sew 17 ruffles on a sheet but,
it's not really difficult
When you get to the top you have the hemmed portion of the sheet
so you don't have to do anything with it.
I then hemmed the sides with a 1/2" hem
making sure to just catch the edge of each ruffle in the hem for
a clean look.
This is the finished result -
a ruffled dress for the bed.
I think it turned out so cute...
I love it and so does our resident princess.
I hope you enjoyed this little project and that it inspires you to try something creative as well.
If you would like to see other projects I have done
you can find me creating at
Thank you so much Diana for allowing me to be a part of your wonderful blog.
