Adding a Ruffle to the Charlie Tee and Hoodie by Fishsticks Designs

Sew Along for Ruffle Hoodie by Kara

Hi everyone! I'm Kara and I blog here. I get to talk about The Charlie Tee from Fishsticks Designs today! I've been sewing for close to 20 years and have recently opened up my own shop on Facebook here. I have 3 cute kids and a super sweet husband. Well, enough about me, here we go....

I'm doing a sew-a-long today for the Charlie Tee and Hoodie. I'm adding a sweet ruffle to the hood and pocket.

Let's start by cutting our ruffles (after you cut out all the pattern pieces, of course!) You will need three strips of fabric, all 2 1/2 by 56 (your length really depends on how "ruffly" you like your ruffles, is that a word?), see below.

Two of the ruffle strips will be for the hood and the other strip will be for the pocket. We need to cut one strip in half, right in the middle, these two small strips will be for the pocket.

Let's start with the hood ruffle. Take your two ruffle strips and line them up right sides together at the short edge. We're just sewing the two strips together to make one long strip.

Use your favorite ruffling method to ruffle your extra long piece. I'll show you my favorite way to ruffle in the next pic. I didn't take a picture of it, but right after this my bobbin thread ran out! Not the best timing!!! When this happens you have a couple of choices, pull it out and start over or just keep going. Which do you think I did? I don't have the time or patience to start over, so I just made sure the part of the ruffle I had already done was what I wanted and picked right up where the other thread ran out.

This is my very favorite way to ruffle. I set my stitch length and tension to the highest number and then hold on to the thread as it goes into the machine. This method gives me a really nice ruffle.

Typically I don't need to tighten up my ruffle any more than it is when it comes off the machine. For this project I wanted a TIGHT ruffle, I mean super tight. So, I bunched up my ruffle until it really wouldn't move any more.

If you don't care for such a tight ruffle, leave it "as is" when it comes off the machine. Below is the difference, straight off the machine compared to the tightened one. You choose!

Now, make sure your ruffles are the same length as your pocket openings and pin in place.

Take it over and sew those puppies on the pocket. The area where the ruffles are will be the part that is left unattached to the front of the shirt so it is the pocket opening. This is the point that I broke my need on a pin, this is why you are supposed to remove the pins as you go. I'm a rule breaker sometimes!!!

This is what you end up with after sewing both ruffles onto the pocket.

Let's pin the pocket to the bodice front now. We will be sewing along the top and lower sides, but leave the ruffled portion open. When you are pinning be sure to pull the ruffle out of the way and pin all the way to the corner of the pocket.

Sew on your pocket as per the instructions in the pattern. Be sure you don't sew down any part of the ruffle, just pull those bad boys right out of your way.

And, VOILA! Your ruffled pocket is attached and ready to go. You repeat the EXACT same process with the hood. Make the hood according to the pattern and attach the ruffle.