How to Sew a Ruffled Hem the Easy Way

Making a ruffle (aka gathering) is a basic sewing technique that you can use a million different ways once you know how to do it.

There are a lot of ways to ruffle or gather. In this tutorial, I create the ruffle as I sew, instead of gathering the fabric ahead of time. It takes some practice to be able to create even gathers, but once you get the hang of it, it’s a quick way to do it.

Difficulty:


Step 1

I want to add a ruffled hem to the bottom of a dress. The first thing I need to do is determine how much fabric I need for my ruffle.

How much fabric I need for the ruffle depends on 1. the width of the bottom of the dress and 2. how full I want the ruffle.

Laying flat, the bottom is 20″ wide, which means it’s 40″ wide total.


Step 1


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