Oh, ruffles... I need an excuse to make you more often!

I was recently asked to make some outfits for a baptism- a dress for the little lady and a coordinating jon-jon for her big brother. I LOVE putting my head together with someone else, dreaming up a plan and seeing it come together! The baptism is next month, so the mom wanted some fall colors- particularly orange. She decided on Trees in Orange by My Minds Eye and this is what we came up with for the dress

(though it will be sporting an orange monogram as soon as we decide on a style):

Oh man! I LOVE RUFFLES! As the mom of a boy, I have absolutely ZERO need for ruffles, and I wasn't even 100% sure of the method I would go with for this dress. Should I serge the edges of a strip and make the ruffle from that OR fold the hem and ruffle it? Should I do the ole "basting stitch" method of gathering or try something new (since everytime I do the "basting stitch" method it always seems uneven SOMEWHERE to me!).

In the end I did the folded hem and then tried a new way of making ruffles- I marked the front, back and sides of the dress (and ruffle strip) and then marked between each of those marks once (so I had 8 marks on the dress and 8 marks on the ruffle strip). I matched up the marks and pinned those 8 places then took it to the sewing machine (well, to be honest, I did a tiny sample run with some scraps before I took the actual dress to the sewing machine... I'm not THAT brave!).

At the sewing maching I used a regular stitch length and just started shoving/cramming/smooshing the fabric up as I ran it through the machine. This was actually EASIER for me to do evenly because I was only working with a little teensy area at a time. When I reached a pin, I just took it out and kept on smooshing! After I had "ruffled" the entire hem, I took it to the serger, um, serged it, ironed the seam allowances up and then went back and topstiched along the outside! Voila!

I am now racking my brain for any ruffle projects that could pass for "age-appropriate" for me.... hmmm...