♥Ruffle Jeans Tutorial♥

I made these cute little ruffled jeans for Sophie a while back.  I was going to wait to share the tutorial until I had made the matching shirt, but seems like the way things are going it may never get made!  So I figured I would go ahead and share and if when I get around to making the shirt I'll just share the tutorial for that then. 

Please bear with me.  As I said it's been a few months.  I added up the measurements and I think everything will work out fine but you may want to double check.  And please let me know if something is wrong so I can correct it...I really need to write down measurements...funny thing is I write down how I did it but always with no measurements....crazy huh?

What You'll Need:

~2 - 35" x 4 3/8" strips of fabric for ruffle

~denim needle

~old pair of jeans

~ric rac, ribbon, or other trim (optional)

~notes~

I used a pair that was hand me downs in her size but she a skinny minnie so if I ever make another pair I will use one that's too short...you will see in the pics they are baggy on her...also I think a straight leg would look better then the flare legged type I used...I just didn't think about the cut of the jean before I did it.

Also, I just ran an overcasting stitch around the bottom instead of hemming but if you are going to do a rolled hem, your fabric strips will need to be

 35" x 4 5/8". 

These jeans were a good length for Sophie, so I just cut off 3 3/4" from the bottom.  If you are using jeans that are too short just put them on the child and measure up 4" from the floor (I did 4" instead of 3 3/4" because I am assuming you won't want them dragging on the floor), mark and cut.

Sew the short ends of your fabric strips together, finish the edges by either serging, overcasting, or zig zaging, and press the seam to the side.

To finish the bottom, I used my overcasting stitch and just went around the bottom a few times until I had the coverage I wanted.  You could also use that skinny double fold bias tape or just do a rolled hem (dont forget you need that extra 1/4" to do the rolled hem)...

Run a basting stitch along the top edge of your fabric strip, making sure to reinforce/reverse stitch at the begining and leaving long tails when you come to the end.  I suggest overcasting the top of the fabric first because my came unraveled a lot as I was gathering.  I had intended to just overcast the top edge of the fabric and the jeans at the same time, but I think it would be best to do it before gathering.

Pull one of the threads gently to gather the top edge until it fits the bottom of your jeans.

With right sides facing, pin the ruffle to the jeans matching raw edges and match the ruffle seam with the jean's inseam.

Switch to a denim needle and stitch together using a 3/8" seam allowance.  Then, finish the raw edges and press the seam up toward the jeans.

It's easiest to stitch from inside the jean.  And make sure you look inside the jean leg to make sure you removed all the pins...they are very hard to find in the ruffle.

Topstitch a 1/8" - 1/4" from your seam on the jeans.

You can leave them as they are...

Or you can add ric rac, ribbon, or any trim you like.  I think it gives it a more finished look.  I used some left over ric rac and I just barely had enough.  That little scrap is all I had left!

~Don't forget to post to my Flickr group if you make some!~