Wanna Be J.Crew Ruffle Shirt Tutorial

Disclaimer: I hardly ever do tutorials, so please pardon my mistakes or anything I may have overlooked. I didn't take exact measurements either- I just eyeballed it, because I'm pretty much Martha Stewart. Not really- it's cause I'm lazy. ;) But you, you'll be fine. Promise.

Disclaimer 2: Dear J.Crew, I apologize if I just cost you hundreds of dollars, but please- $50 for a tee shirt? I love you. I really do. But not that much.

I got many emails with questions about how I made this shirt. And these shirts are all over the place, but it's because they're so easy to make! Very do-able... even for novice seamstresseseses! Not to mention that ruffles are very forgiving (and oh, so cute!). You'd never tell I made several mistakes on this shirt. (Ok, maybe you could tell...) But here's the low down for those who read my disclaimers and want to try it on thier own anyway.

Materials:
* One plain shirt (the one I used was a v-neck, by the way)
* One old knit shirt from your Goodwill pile (make sure it is knit material or else it will fray) This shirt can be in a contrasting, but complimentary color, or it can be the same color. It's up to you!
* rotary cutters (or good quality scissors)
* a self healing cutting mat for, you guessed it, cutting
* matching thread
* sewing machine (duh)
* optional: another knit shirt in a complimentary color for the decorative 'floral' accents

Step 1:
Measure the length of the neck hole. You'll want to make sure the strips of fabric you'll be cutting for you ruffles will be at least twice this length, depending on how 'ruffly' you want it to be. Yes, I know that ruffly is not a word.

Step 2:
Use your rotary cutter to start slicing through your old knit shirt. There are no exact measurements, but make your width big or small depending on how thick you want your ruffles to be.

Step 3:
Set your sewing machine to the longest/widest stitch setting. (If you don't know where this is, consult your manual) I put mine to the longest setting at 6.0.

Step 4:

Stich in a straight line right down the center of the strips. Do this same thing to all your strips. They will start to ruffle and scrunch a bit on their own as you slide them through. You'll enhance this more in the next step.

Step 5:

Once all strips are complete, grab the top stich and very gently, pull. You will see they will scrunch in and will become full fledged ruffles now! :) 

Step 6:
Now comes the tedious part of the project... start pinning the ruffles onto the collar of your shirt. I'm normally not a pinner, but for this project, I think it's essential. And pin alot.! I placed a pin once ever inch or so. It will really help to keep your ruffles in place as you go through them.

Step 7:
Change your stitch length setting back to what is normal for your machine. Find the middle stitch that you already sewed, and try to follow it. Start stitching.

Step 8:
Once you've gone around the entire neck opening, turn the shirt inside out, and stitch around again one more time. I don't think this step is essential, but it made me feel better about the stitches not coming out in the wash. Unless you want to add another ruffle 'rose' in a different color, your done!!

Step 9:
For the pink/red rose ruffles I added, I cut a couple of strips from another old knit shirt from Old Navy that I though would compliment the brown and ivory.

Complete steps two through five.

I sort of wound them up into a floral shape, pinned them, and then handsewed them on the shirt starting in the center. You can use the regular thread but I think embroidery thread might anchor it better. This method gave the floral accents a neater, more fluffy appearance than if I would have run them through the machine again.

And there you have it folks. It's pretty simple, really. I tried to break it down to as many small steps as I could. Let me know if you have any questions. And if you do this, I'd LOOOOVE to see it!!!

Happy crafting!
xoxo