Yellow Floral Ruffle Tote

Two fun things

1) Yellow ruffle tote. I just put together a full video tutorial in a blog post if you want to make one of your own!

2) I painted my sewing room pink. Floor, walls, trim. It’s making me pretty happy these days.

If you enjoyed this ruffle tote, you may also enjoy…

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Step by step photo tutorial to fill your living room with ruffle pillows.

Ruffles 101 -- How to Gather Fabric

Everything you need to know to start playing with ruffles.

Tote Bag Calculator

Use the Tote Bag Calculator and follow the step by step instructions to quickly make any size tote bag you want. Great afternoon project.

Ruffles 101 -- How to Gather Fabric

Basics of gathering

Step 1: Sew a loose line of stitching without backstitching at the beginning or end. Then hold the bobbin thread tight.

Step 2: Scrunch up the fabric, little by little, while holding the bobbin thread tight.

Lines of stitching

Ruffles with one line of stitching is sufficient, but those ruffles can be unwieldy to sew. It is more likely the ruffles will fold over each other in the sewing process because the hills and valleys are high.

With each line of stitching added, the hills and valleys of the ruffles become more manageable. They become tamed.

A happy medium for me is two lines of stitching. I usually sew the first line of stitching with 3/8” (1 cm) seam allowance and a second line with 1/4” (0.6 cm) seam allowance.

How much gathering

One of the hardest decisions when playing with gathering is deciding how much ruffle do you want. Here’s a photo to help you determine which ratio works best for your project.

There are pros and cons using less ruffle and more ruffle. Less fabric makes the process faster, sometimes much faster to gather. But it’s easier to distribute the gathers evenly if there is more fabric to work with.

A happy medium I usually land on is about 2x.

For best sewing results

Use lots of clips! Clip clip clip.

Seam allowance

To conceal the gathering threads, be sure to use a seam allowance just as wide or wider than used for the lines of stitching to make the gathers.

Matching thread

Despite best efforts on seam allowance, the gathering threads sometimes peek through. Use matching thread to avoid the thread being noticed like this dark green stitching. But if any gathering threads are visible after sewing the ruffles, carefully cut and pull them out with a seam ripper.

Other tips

Some fabric gathers a lot easier than others. It can vary depending on fiber content and tightness of weave. If the thread breaks while trying to gather, try using a thicker thread like upholstery thread and loosening the stitch from the machine as much as possible.

Sometimes gathering takes a long time. Stick with it and go little by little.

The fun thing about ruffles is they are pretty forgiving. If the gathers aren’t evenly distributed, don’t sweat it. It doesn’t have to be perfect to look good. It’s fun to just play with them.

Now that you’re ready for ruffles, check out these tutorials in my ruffle series:

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How to Sew a Ruffle Pillow

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How to Sew a Ruffle Tote Bag — Video Tutorial

I hope this step by step video tutorial can serve you well in your ruffle tote adventures. This tutorial is for a simple unlined tote bag with short handles.

Fabric dimensions:

  • Cut two 15” x 17” (main body)

  • Cut three 3” x 36” (ruffle)

  • Cut one 4” x 36” (handle)

Here are some photos of the process to get you inspired

Check out my other tutorials in the ruffle series:

Details

Fabric: Quilting cotton from the clearance aisle at Joanns.

Pattern: I used the nifty Tote Bag Calculator to help me quickly determine what size to cut the fabric for this tote.

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How to Sew a Ruffle Pillow

Let’s jump in!

Step 1: Cut two circles any size. Calculate the circumference of the circles. Cut a strip 5” (13 cm) wide and 2 - 3x the length of the circumference.

The circles in this tutorial are 16” (40 cm) in diameter.

The strip in this tutorial is about 2.25x the circumference. 5” x 56” (13 cm x 142 cm) cut from two sections.

Step 2: Sew the strip together and press seams open.

Step 3: Fold strip in half with wrong sides together. Sew one line of loose stitching with 3/8” (1 cm) seam allowance. Follow with another line of loose stitching between the first line and the raw edge. Sew as loosely and possible and be sure not to backstitch at the beginning or end.

Step 4: Pull the bobbin threads from the two lines of stitching. Gather, gather, gather until it’s roughly (or should I say, rufflely) the circumference of the circles.

Step 5: Carefully clip the ruffled strip evenly all the way around the right side of one of the circles.

Step 6: Sew all the way around with 3/8” (1 cm) seam allowance.

Sew 7: Place the second circle right sides together and clip in place.

Step 8: Stitch with 3/8” (1 cm) seam allowance all the way around except for a few inch opening that a hand can fit through.

Step 9: Turn pillow right side out. Stuff the inside with pillow filling through the opening.

Step 10: Hand sew the opening with a blind stitch.

Step 11: Immediately cut fabric to fill your living room with more pillows because they are so fun!

Details

Fabric: Checkered fabric is heavyweight 100% cotton from a thrift store. Teal linen is Handkerchief Meadow Softened from the Fabrics-Store.

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Living Room Sewing -- Ruffled Tote

My sewing room is rather toasty in the summer months. I slid the kitchen table into the living room and set up shop until the weather turns. Today’s project: ruffled tote in yellow floral.

I used the nifty Tote Bag Calculator to quickly get the right fabric dimensions for sewing the tote size I want.

Details

Fabric: 100% cotton from Joann’s.

Pattern: I used the Tote Bag Calculator to get the fabric dimensions and changed a few things to add the ruffle. If you haven’t tried it yet, give her a whirl!