Ruffle Crazy

Yeah, so I think I've gone a little ruffle, gather and ruching crazy and so has blogworld! OR maybe it's one of those things where you decide to do something that involves a new skill and suddenly it's EVERYWHERE! Just tell me that's never happened to you when you buy a new car! Well, so, long story short, I thought I'd just compile ALL the ruffle, gather, and ruche-ing tutorials all in one bloggy post and then let YOU add your links! Here's a quick list of definitions of the difference between ruffles, ruching and gathers. (As far as I can tell)

Gathers: A gather is created (one of many ways) by using a gathering stitch. What the HECK is that? Just set your stitch length to the longest it will go (also known as a basting stitch) and run a stitch down your strip of fabric. The general rule of thumb is to do this twice and fairly close together, because when you are pulling your thread, if one breaks, you have the other as a back up. Leave a long tail of thread at the end of your stitching. Gently pull the thread tail from the back of your fabric to gather the fabric along the stitching. Here is a great video showing how to do this.

A gather will have the raw edges of the fabric encased in a seam.You can make the gather as subtle or noticeable as you want, depending on how you pull the fabric.

Look at this cute gathered clutch I made using the AWESOME tutorial over on Noodlehead.

Ruffles: As far as I can tell (from my in depth research - 2 hours of blog surfing) ruffles involve a gathered piece of fabric, but one or both edges of that fabric are open to the world. Otherwise, the technique seems to be the same. Some sewing machines and sergers have a ruffler attachment which is usually very pricey and complicated. I'm sure it's very useful if you do a lot of ruffles. Here is a tutorial for a CUTE little clutch with a ruffle on the top! It's over at Just Sew Sassy, a cute new blog I found today that inspired me to write this post!

Ruffles Table Runner Tutorial

Ruching (pronounced "rooching"): I think "ruche" might just be the French word for ruffle or gather, but I could be wrong. I think (again, from my in depth research) that ruching is the use of multiple gathers on one item. OK, I was wrong, according to http://www.thefreedictionary.com/ Ruche is actually the French word for beehive. Go figure. The free dictionary also defined ruche as "a ruffle or pleat of lace, muslin or other fine fabric used for trimming women's garments." So, to me, that means it's almost the same as a gather or ruffle. There is an awesome tutorial over on Little Birdie Secrets for a Ruched Pillow. I think it's a really interested approach to the entire gather/ruffle thing.

Now, have YOU made anything or seen any tutorials around blogworld that include any of these fun techniques? Please link them below!



Happy Stitches,
Anna