How to Use a Ruffler for sewing pleats or gathers

What is a ruffler?

A ruffler is a foot for your sewing machine. It does exactly that, it makes ruffles. And once you can get beyond how scary and complicated it looks, you will realize it makes ruffling rather easy.

How to use a ruffler foot/attachment:

The most difficult part about a ruffler foot is getting it clamped onto your machine.

1.     Take whatever foot is on, off. 

2.     Straddle your needle clamp (the large screwish thing to the right of your needle) with the fork arm of the ruffler (the C) 

3.     Then clamp the back part of the foot the same way you attach all presser feet.

4.     Check to see that your needle clears the needle hole.

With the ruffler you can make both pleated and gathered ruffles.

The texture of the fabric will affect the fullness of the ruffle. I have only used quilting cotton and have not experimented with other fabrics. But it works well with quilting cotton.

Stitch length can also affect fullness. A shorter stitch means more ruffles, or fullness. As you can see, whatever you choose, it makes that evenly and consistently.

An example of nice even ruffles from a Ruffler Foot

Adjusting the gathers or pleats

There are two adjustments that can be made on the ruffler:

The adjusting lever sets for ruffles/gathers or pleats. Slot 1 is for gathers, slot 6 and 12 are for pleats. 6 makes pleats 6 stitches apart. 12 for 12 stitches apart.

The Adjuster lever for pleats or gathers

The adjusting indicator regulates how full or deep each pleat or ruffle is. 8 is the deepest) gives only a slight gather.

The adjusting indicator for fullness or depth

The diagram below shows how to place your fabric in the ruffler.

How to place your fabric

Once it’s in. Just sew and watch the ruffles appear. Watch:

Where can you find a ruffler?

A ruffler does not come with the sewing machine but you can buy one for most sewing machines. They are sold at sewing machine stores and on eBay. The average ruffler costs about $20-$25.

Doll Dressmaking Series: Making a Ruffle with Perle Cotton

4 different ways to gather a ruffle. From Phoebeandegg.com/blog

Four Ways to Make Ruffled Trim: Part 1

Two things right off the bat. One, there are probably more than 4 ways to make ruffled trim, the kind like I have on the skirt above. And two, there is a reason I did not call the blog post "How to gather" fabric. Although most of these methods involve a form of gathering,  three of the four methods I would only use on decorative elements, because you cannot control the length and degree of the gathering on the finished product.

That's okay if you are making trim.

one inch strips

My ruffled trim is made from strips of cotton print, one inch wide and 45" long, cut with the rotary cutter, by merely slicing of the end of a fabric piece, one inch at a time.

I'll cover one way in each post. This post is all about the gathering foot. I think this is by far the easiest way to make this trim. You'll see why in the video.

The gathering foot shown below is the one from Bernina, #16. But most brands make one, Janome, Brother, Singer, etc..  They all look the same. Once and awhile it is called a shirring foot. They seem to cost between $20-$22. 

The gathering foot.

To use this foot, you will need to set your stitch length to the longest stitch. If you want less gathering, shorten the stitch a bit.

Place your fabric under the foot, do a stitch or two backwards to secure and then just zoom right ahead, gathering/ruffling as you go.

How to use a gathering foot to make ruffled trim

And in about a minute or two you have your trim! I love this foot!

Finished trim

Ten things I learned in my first year in business

Today marks one year since I first went live with my Etsy shop. It has been an amazing year and I feel incredibly lucky to be doing this for a living.

It has also been an educational year.

Here are just ten of the many things I learned.

1. I need to OWN my business, I mean own like flaunt it.

After nearly two decades in the environmental protection business, in May, I left to grow Phoebe&Egg. I love what I do, but when people ask I what I do, I still hesitate to say “I am a doll-maker”.  It’s just not your usual profession.

When I proudly own it, the conversation not only goes more smoothly, I often make unexpected connections. People don’t talk about dolls in daily conversations, but there a lot of people who are happy to if given the chance.

So now I always have my Moo mini cards and am happy to talk about what I do.

I own Phoebe&Egg.

2. Have patience. My husband said this the day after I officially gave my notice at my previous job. He knows I am not the most patient person, especially when it comes to my own progress.  But that is one of the best pieces of advice a new business owner can receive. 

This past summer, my first summer in "retail", business was slow. I worried. Had this all been just a crazy far-fetched idea? 

I am now crazy busy and wish I had been patient and enjoyed the slower pace last June, when I needed to be patient.

It is important to enjoy the process of growing gradually.

3. When your business is online you meet a lot of  people. Maybe more than when you sell in a bricks and mortar store ( I do both). 

I’ve met some great people. I love my customers. I also have met some amazing people who sew or craft for a living. I am not sure I would have made so many connections by only selling in bricks and mortar stores or indirectly through other online shops. It has been the direct connections, through my blog, my etsy shop, emails or Facebook or Instagram, that have been most valuable.

4. I can't do craft fairs. At least not for a few years.

I did one last year, it was fun (I maybe broke even).

I signed up for two this holiday season (back in June when business was slow), thinking that was what I needed for the holiday season. 

It was not what I needed at all. I am so busy with custom orders this fall that I never had time to create stock for one fair, let alone two.

It was with great angst that I backed out of each fair.

So fairs will not be my thing.

5. Don’t order too many supplies.  I tend to worry I am going to run out of something at a critical time. In fact I have on occasion run out of something critical. But not for long. In this day and age, most things can be obtained within a few days and stuff takes up space.

6. Assume the best. This one I got from Tara Swiger, of Share Your Enthusiasm. This applies to so much. Assume the postal service will work. Assume a customer issue can be resolved. Assume people will like what you make for them. Negative thoughts and worry drain your valuable energy. 

If I had assumed the best when the summer was slow, I would have spent more time creating back stock for fairs, organizing my photos in Lightroom, and writing blog posts, because I would have assumed I would be very busy now.  

7. Develop systems when you are slow. They are critical for when you are busy. Things like a “shipping station” or a system for how your photo files are organized (if you are getting the sense this is a problem, you are right) or a blog posting routine. After the holidays, I will be instituting a few more systems.

8. My husband is right more often than I admit. He was right about being patient. And many other things. He has been my biggest (and most helpful) fan.

9. Family time needs to be sacred. For your sanity and for your family's.  A few times I’ve been behind and tried to borrow from family time, it didn’t turn out well.

10. My customers have the best ideas. Many of my new doll ideas have been prompted by customer requests. I have then gone on to sell many more of that doll. Fancy Nancy. A boy doll. A baby with pink hair. A toddler with the wild braids. I just had a Harry Potter request.

So please, keep the great ideas coming.

And most of all,  thank you for such an amazing year.

Doll Dressmaking Series: A trick for pockets

Pockets are often the perfect accent for kids and doll clothing. For kids, a lined patch pocket is easy, the lining makes for easy clean edges. 

Doll pockets are too small to line easily. And machine hemming all the edges is tricky for such a small size rectangle. 

My trick is to "line" the pockets with tulle.

Cut out two pockets. A rectangle that is 3x3.5 inches should work for Phoebe, Waldorf and American Girl Dolls. It will seem large but it will be smaller when it's done.

Tulle is sold in many crafts shops and online as a 6inch roll.

1. Place your two pockets right side up.

2. Cut a piece of tulle large to cover both pockets.

3. Lay tulle over both pockets and pin. 

4. Stitch around the edges of each pocket, leaving an opening that is about an inch for turning right side out. A larger seam allowance is better for this. Just under a half inch is good.

5. Clip corners.

6. Turn right side out. Use something like a knitting needle to carefully poke out corners.

7. Iron flat. Iron with fabric side up, tulle cannot withstand direct heat.

8. Pin pockets to dress. Pocket placement is a personal preference. I placed these with a tiny bit going onto the back of the dress.

9. Sew the pockets. If a tiny bit of tulle shows anywhere, it is easy to snip off.

View fullsize

Click to enlarge.

Pockets are not so hard and maybe even fun.

Five Things to Think About When Teaching your Child to Sew by hand, A Guest Post

One night scrolling through Instagram, I noticed the cute projects that Trixi Symonds uses to teach children to sew. I had spent the week teaching two girls to sew on the machine and had struggled with the hand sewing aspect. This was her specialty. So, I reached out to Trixi, who blogs at Colouredbuttons.com.  Both her blog and her book "Sew Together, Grow Together" have great hand sewing projects for kids.

We thought a collaborative post would be a great way to bring our different skills together. Today is the first in a series. On her blog I discuss five things to think about before letting a child sew on the machine. 

And Trixi has written five things to think about when teaching a child to hand sew:

My youngest daughter’s name is Yiscah. She first started sewing when she was  three. I vividly remember how she used to peek into the room whenever I was teaching a class so she could watch the older girls sew. After every class she’d ask me why she couldn’t join in. Being the wise parent, I told her that she was too little just yet but she always insisted she wasn’t. One day I decided to let her sew something simple and to my surprise, she did a pretty good job… and she altered forever my ideas about when a child can begin to start sewing. 

I still find people who believe, as I once did, that children have to be a bit older before they start sewing. Not true. So here are some tips to help you maximize enjoyment and minimize problems when your child begins sewing at a young age.

1. Getting Them Excited

There are lots of ways to get your child excited about sewing. Showing them a book of projects and letting them choose what they wish to make is always a good idea … as is letting them choose their fabrics and the colors of their embroidery floss. The basic rule here is simple: the more they do by themselves, the more they’ll enjoy it. 

Even if they can’t manage the sewing on a project they’ve chosen, just watching Mum involves them more deeply than we might suspect and is a sure way to ignite their desire to sew something all by themselves. 

          Museum of Contemporary Art Workshop 2014

2. Using good quality materials 
Good materials are essential for a good experience. Sewing supplies are not expensive, so make sure you choose good quality felts, fabrics and embroidery floss. 

Acrylic felts are the least expensive but they can feel a bit hard and scratchy to 
sew with. I personally love using wool blend felts as they’re soft, easy to sew with 
and reasonably priced. Also, instead of using sewing cotton, I prefer to use embroidery floss, and I recommend using a brand like DMC or Anchor as cheaper products tend to break.

Use an embroidery needle with a large eye that makes it easy to thread. Make sure your needle isn’t blunt. Sewing with a blunt needle can be difficult and frustrating. And it’s a good idea to first sew a few stitches yourself in order to check that everything works as it should.

Museum of Contemporary Art Workshop 2014

3. Stressing safety 
Explain to your child that scissors and needles are sharp and can be dangerous if  not used sensibly. In classes I stress that needles have to be put back in containers and we always do a floor search to check for needles that may have dropped. Scissors are always closed and put point down in a jar after sewing. 

It doesn’t really matter what safety behaviors you decide on, what matters is that your child sees that you treat these things with caution and knows that this is what you must do when you sew. I’ve found that when children really want to do something that requires responsibility, they have no difficulty behaving as they 
should.

 Museum of Contemporary Art Workshop 2014

4. Accepting that wonky is ok 
Young children begin to sew with large, wonky stitches and their sewing lines are often crooked. With a little practice, however, their stitches rapidly improve. Don’t do the  work for them. Let them sew their own stitches and they will be proud of what they have accomplished. 

Sometimes young children’s work becomes messy simply because they forget to look at 
what they are doing. A gentle reminder to look at their work while sewing can bring 
about a miraculous improvement. Hand sewing doesn’t require excessive concentration and the modest demands it does make will actually help to improve your child’s ability to concentrate.

           Museum of Contemporary Art Workshop 2014

 Museum of Contemporary Art Workshop 2014

5. Making the projects your own 
There’s nothing wrong with copying a project exactly as it’s given but this never really 
compares with the feeling you get when you make a project your own. So don’t be afraid 
to adapt things, to change them, and to make them to suit your own and your child’s 
interests and wishes. 

You can also drop in to Mollymoo Crafts where Michelle has adapted Baby in a Pouch. The original project is small enough to fit into the palm of a child’s hand but Michelle and her daughter wanted something that could be hugged, so they made the baby and her pouch much larger giving the project a very different feel.

Museum of Contemporary Art Workshop 2014

The New Learn to Sew Kits

My new Learn-to-Sew Kits are now on Etsy. The star of the kit is a little Phoebe doll, called Scrappy Phoebe. There are five different Scrappy Phoebes. She comes dressed in her "underwear", but hopefully once she arrives, she will soon have many dresses. 

The Scrappy Phoebe Learn to Sew Kits come with everything a girl needs to make at least 8 dresses. The kit includes

• Scrappy Phoebe (obviously)
• An instruction Booklet
• Pattern for the basic dress, to make and embellish
• 8 Fabrics (your "scraps")
• 10 Trims
• 8 Velcro closures
• Wonderclips
• Practice Fabric

The kit is perfect for kids 7-10 with little or no sewing machine experience. The dress is easy to make and the focus is on the fun of designing and embellishing. After all that is the fun of learning to sew, adding your own ideas. This kit allows for lots of ideas.

And Scrappy Phoebe herself is pretty cute. She is small, but not so small that it makes sewing tricky.

Later this week I will have a guest post about hand sewing with kids. The dresses can also be made with hand sewing. 

Later I will introduce two intermediate kits: Princess Scrappy Phoebe and Winter Clothes for Scrappy Phoebe. Not sure if I will have those ready before the holidays though. 

Click through here for the kit on Etsy.

Scrappy Phoebe models a handmade dress

The back of Scrappy Phoebe and the back of the dress. yes the kit includes velcro.

Five Scrappy Phoebes wondering what to wear.

Scrappy Phoebe Learn To sew Kit

The pattern, for tracing

What is in a Scrappy Phoebe Kit

Your bling

Doll Dressmaking Series: Where to find cute trim

I love trim. As you can see I have a bit. Before I get into choosing and sewing on various trims, I thought I'd share some of my favorite places to buy trim. The photo below are the trims I tend to use most often for doll clothing.

Next in this series, a series about sewing on various dolls trims.

Where to find cute trim for doll clothing

When shopping for ribbon, remember often one yard will cover trimming three doll dresses.

Velvet Ribbon comes in all sorts of widths. 

• MJ Trim has the largest variety of widths and colors, but not the cheapest. You must buy a minimum of five yards.
• JKM Ribbon sells spools of ten yards of 3/8" and 5/8" the two best widths for doll clothes for roughly five dollars and has a sufficient selection. 
• Create for Less has 1/2" width spools for $3.39, but a spool is only 3 yards. 
• Farmhouse Fabrics has an amazing selection, but the ribbon starts at $145 a yard. If you are into quality classic sewing materials, you can lose yourself on this site.

Rick Rack, posted about this awhile back but here are the sources again.

Wright's Rick Rack (polyester) sold in the little cellophane cover packets is available many places online. It comes in over 20 colors. You can order Wright's here:

• JKM Trims and Ribbons
• Joanne's

Cotton Rick Rack can be found at:

• Farmhouse Fabrics
• Harts
• Elegant Stitches

Rolls of Rick Rack (polyester)

• Create for Less carries a cool brand called Cheep Trims in addition to having Wrights and lots of other cool stuff.

Crochet edging, sometimes called Cluny

• Farmhouse Fabrics, wide range, quality and there more expensive, but sometimes sell bags of assorted edging cheaply in their barn closeouts.
• Debs Lace and Trims: Lots of crochet edging, very inexpensive. have a whole cluny section.
• Ebay: amazing selection and prices for white crochet trim, which is my favorite. 

Jacquard Ribbon:

This is fairly easy to find, but what is hard to find is the narrower widths of doll clothing. You can play with scale, which can be cute, and use larger sizes. Here are a few places you can find some:

• MJTrim again.
• Farmhouse Fabrics. This is where the cherry trim in the photo is from. Huge selection and a lot of tiny ones. Not inexpensive though.
• Fabric.com has a fairly large selection.

Mini Pompoms!

• Fabric.com has a few colors at about a little under a dollar a yard. 
• Create for Less best source if you want a large supply of mini pom-poms. 36 yards for $18. Lots of colors. larger pompoms too.
• Etsy, lots of people sell them, often a few dollars for five yards.

Bias Trim:

I make my own. simple to do, and you will always have an endless variety and sizes. I'll post about this later.

Ruffle Trim:

I bought this particular one in bulk wholesale from Mokuba, Japanese trim dealer in NYC. I had to buy 30 yards, but I love it and use it all the time. If you ever find yourself in the garment district, stop in. You need a business card to get in, but they are not that fussy about what business. Lots of ruffled trims in lots of sizes and colors. Maybe it's a thing in Japan.

Farmhouse Fabrics has some, but they are not small.

Grosgrain Ribbon: 

I love the simplicity of grosgrain ribbon. It is easy to find.

• Create for Less has a huge selection, which includes stripes and other designs.
• Debs Lace and Trims: It's not a separate section, you have to look through other sorts of ribbons too.
• Fabric.com lots starting at about 20 cents a yard.
• Thread Art: About $2.00 for a 20 yard roll. You really can't do better than that. If you need 20 yards.
• Etsy, easy to get smaller quantities.

In the next few posts in this series, I'll show you how I sew trims on doll clothes.

Doll Dressmaking Series: Another Tool

My definition of a "cool tool" is something that makes boring work a bit more fun.  

Sewing by machine creates lots of little threads that need to be snipped close to the fabric. Snipping quickly with larger scissors can result in the accidental over snip into fabric, plus it's hard to get up close. But, there's the perfect little tool for that—thread snips! 

Thread snips, very low tech but useful.

They are about as small, light, basic and low tech as a sewing tool can get. Mostly they are useful, they make thread cutting easy, quick, accurate and almost fun.  There beauty is in their flatness. Just squeeze gently and snip.

There are a variety of brands, on the same concept. They are usually under five dollars, so of course, you should have a couple to have ready anywhere you might sit with a sewing project.

Doll clothes, or all clothes for that matter, look much better with threads snipped.

They can snip the tiniest of threads poking up.

Doll Dressmaking Series: Resizing the pattern

I have made basic dress (the starter pattern) pieces for Phoebe dolls, American Girl Dolls and a 16 inch Waldorf dolls. However, you may want to sew for a different doll. In addition, not all dolls of the same brand are the same size. American Girl doll sizes have varied quite a bit over the last 20 years. And handmade dolls like Phoebe and Waldorf dolls can vary simply because they are handmade.

There are three ways to alter the size of a pattern. In order to know how much you need to change, I suggest starting with making a crude version of the dress from the pattern you think is closest to your doll size.

For those of you new to sewing, click here for the basic steps for making the basic fitting dress.

Key areas for adjusting fit in a doll dress

Once you have made that dress, try it on your doll.  and answer the following questions:

1. Is it too big or too small?
2. Is it too big or too small all over or in just one or two places? Look at the neck hole, armholes, chest and waist.
3. How is the length? Remember to take into account a 1 inch hem.

There are three ways to alter a pattern to fit. Which way you go with depends on what type of size change you are attempting.

Too Big or Too Small Overall

If the pattern is overall too big or too small (meaning neck, chest AND armholes), you can easily adjust the pattern with an enlargement or reduction on the copier.  It just requires a bit of math. If a doll's chest is 10 inches and you need 11, then copy it at 110%. Or you can use the pattern pieces to do the math. If a 6.5 inch pattern piece needs to be 7.5, divide 7.5 by 6.5 and you get the percentage of enlargement, 115%. 

Using a copier to change pattern size

Three things to remember about using the copier to enlarge or reduce. 

1. It only really works if all of the measurements need to be uniformly (or almost uniformly) reduced or enlarged.

2 It should not be used for making a dress pattern longer or shorter, just for circumference changes. A doll may be taller but thinner, so the dress's width should not be increased, just length, which is easy to do without the copier.

3. You are also enlarging/reducing the seam allowance. If you are only changing the pattern within 20%, this won't matter so much, but more than that can have an impact. Most doll clothes are sewn with a 3/8 inch seam allowance.

Just Need to Increase the Width

Okay so the armholes are loose enough, but the dress is snug. This can be done by adding a segment onto your pattern piece either with tracing paper or by taping your pattern piece on a piece of graph paper. See sketch below.

If the dress front is one inch too narrow, add a half of an inch to the fold edge. You can create a new pattern either by cutting out the graph paper with the taped on piece.

Altering a pattern piece for width only

Just the Neck is Too Tight

Some dolls have narrow necks, some dolls have wide necks. If it is just the neck that is not fitting, the fix is quite simple. You can draw a wider neck on the pattern piece as depicted below. A bit of guess work is involved. But it doesn't take that long to make a sizing dress to try. Or you can cut your sizing dress until it fits and work backwards.

Next, facings and linings.