Chanson de Vie Dance Studio

Who doesn’t love ruffles? I’m not talking about the potato chips (though they are tasty!) I’m talking about fabric ruffles for sleeves and skirts, tops and trim. I use gathers and ruffles for all sorts of things on both costumes and regular practice wear.

I first learned how to gather fabric by sewing a long straight stitch on the sewing machine. Then I pulled on one of the strings (either the main thread or the bobbin thread) until I got the desired gathering effect.

While that method does work, it’s easy to break the thread, which means you have to start over. I soon learned to sew two or three parallel lines of basting stitches, just in case I broke the first one. The basting method also takes a long time, especially when you’re working on something like a tiered Gypsy skirt where you need miles and miles of ruffles.

Let me tell you about tiered Gypsy skirts. One year my troupe needed 12 of them. And I being young and foolish said “sure, I’ll make them. No big deal.” Well, it turned out to be a very big deal. I was gathering for days and then still had to sew all these ruffles onto a skirt base. There had to be an easier way!

So, I went on a search for faster, easier ways to make gathers and ruffles and attach them to a band, like a waistband or a sleeve cuff. This was way before the Internet, so it took me a while. But eventually I learned it’s much faster to gather and attach at the same time. And there are a few tools to help you do just that.

1) If you have a serger with a differential feed, you can simply layer the band on top and the fabric to be gathered on the bottom. Set the feed to “maximum push” and just let ‘er rip. You’ll have a lovely serged edge with a gathered pouf attached to the straight band.

2) You can buy a little plastic gathering foot for your machine, but these only make small gathers like for a sleeve cap. For most belly dance costumes, you want to make bigger, better ruffles. This is a better option than doing it all by hand, though. You’re less likely to break the thread.

3) Use a ruffler. This is the COOLEST SEWING TOOL EVER! It’s a huge contraption that replaces your regular presser foot. You can set it for a variety of ruffle “depths” and it just automatically pushes the fabric into place as it is stitched down. I’ll warn you, it’s a little scary when you first use it. It’s loud and mechanical, so go slow until you get used to it.

Here’s a video of the ruffler at work on a single piece of fabric (to be attached later).

Here’s a video of ruffling and attaching at the same time.

Rufflers are definitely one of the more expensive sewing machine accessories, (from $22-$50 each) but if you’re sewing costumes a lot, it saves a TON of time and frustration. They do wear out–I’ve gone through two in about 6 years. Oh, and make sure you get the one designed for your particular sewing machine or embroidery sewing machine. Different machines have different foot shanks and technical specifications.

Once you start using these techniques, you’re going to find all sorts of ways to use ruffles on your costumes and other craft projects. So, don’t suffer through hand pleating or gathering another skirt. Get a machine to do it!

Mira has been dancing and sewing for dancers for longer than she wants to admit on a public blog! She writes about sewing machines here and about dance marketing here.