How to Sew a Ruffle Shirt
- 1). Button the shirt leaving to top two buttons undone. Place the shirt on yourself and put your hand under your armpit, with the arm perpendicular to your body. Place a pin in the spot along the seam where your hand was sitting. Repeat this process for the other arm.
- 2). Take off the shirt and lay it flat on the work surface. Cut off the sleeves and remove the cuffs. Rip the seams in the remaining sleeve material.
- 3). Remove the pocket with a seam ripper.
- 4). Cut out the button placard and buttonhole placard from the fourth button up. If the placards are not bound, cut 1/4-inch material around the placard edge. If they are bound, cut just behind the seam. Along with the placards, and still attached to the placards, cut out the collar leaving one inch still attached at the center of the back of the neck.
- 5). Button the remaining buttons of the shirt and turn the shirt inside out. Fold the shirt so the button and buttonhole placards are flat against each other. Sew a seam along the button and buttonhole placards. Cut off the placards 1/4-inch from the seam. Fold the seam over 1/4-inch and sew another seam over the first ensuring stability of the stitch.
- 6). Put the shirt on, inside out. Pin the sides, from the first pin placed in the armpit during the beginning of the project to the bottom, for a better fit. Do not pin the shirt so tightly it will not come back off.
- 7). Cut the fabric 1-inch from where it is pinned. Fold the 1-inch of fabric to make a seam. Sew the seam on both sides.
- 8). Iron the shirt front and the material from the sleeves cut out earlier. Cut two strips of fabric from each sleeve, length-wise, of 3-inch width. Sew these two strips together at one 3-inch end. Repeat this process for the two strips created from the second sleeve. Iron the seams on each strip flat.
- 9). Fold the long strips over length-wise until the raw edges touch. Pin the edges together and sew a seam 1/4-inch from the edge. Fold that 1/4-inch over and sew the seam again. Iron the strip flat. Repeat this process for the second strip.
- 10
Thread a needle with the same thread used in the sewing machine. Sew a wide stitch into the strip along the seam. The stitches will be 1/4-inch long with 1/4-inch between each stitch. This is called basting. Most sewing machines have a basting stitch on its palette, but it is easier to do it by hand. Knot the end of the thread before entering the material. Once the stitch has reached the end of the strip, pull the thread lightly until the material beings to bunch up. Spread the bunching throughout the strip until a ruffle is formed, then tie off the other end of the thread to keep the ruffle in place. Repeat this process for the other strip of material. - 11
Pin the ruffle to the back of the button placard and the other ruffle to the back of the buttonhole placard. Sew the ruffles to the placards. Be creative and make a smaller ruffle to go inside the first ruffle or more. - 12
Sew the placards to the top of the seam made earlier into the front of the shirt by laying the button placard down across the seam and then the buttonhole placard over that. Pin these in place and then pin the placards to the shirt where they were cut off and sew them and the collar back on. - 13
Sew the seam for the sleeveless arms and the bottom hem to where it is the most comfortable for you to complete the shirt.
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