Worn Pleated Ruffles

I had many people ask for advice when it comes to making Clara’s Red Barmaid dress from the Doctor Who Christmas Special The Snowmen. I wrote a walkthrough of my progress using the pictures I had, but here's a proper tutorial for the ruffles.

I’m using 60” fabric. To save time, I folded it in half before I cut it. I’m making the strips 8 inches wide.

After lining up my ruler on my self-healing cutting mat to use as a guideline, I cut the fabric using my rotary cutter. The brand I’m using is Fiskars and you can probably get this kit at your local fabric and craft store.

I used a rotary blade to save time and ensure that my line would be straight. If you don't have a rotary blade, you can also draw a line on the fabric and cut with scissors.

I sew a regular straight stitch at 3/8ths of an inch using thread that matches my fabric. Her skirt has an old, worn look to it, so I’m not hemming my fabric because I want it fray. This stitch just controls how high up it frays. It also doesn’t matter if you accidentally pucker or gather your fabric because we’re going for imperfection.

Next, I attach my ruffler foot to my machine. I set my machine to the shortest straight stitch it has. I set my ruffler foot to make the deepest pleat it can every sixth stitch. Since this will be at the top of the ruffle, hidden by the one above it, I can use regular black thread (which is good because I was running out of the maroon thread ^_^;) You’re going to want to stop between a half inch to an inch before the end of the strip. If you don’t have a ruffler foot, you could always lightly gather your fabric using your usual technique.

I serged the edge of the fabric that I ran through my ruffler foot to prevent fraying make it easier to work with. If you don’t have a serger, you could use a zig zag stitch on your machine.

Now you have a nice ruffle. Maybe a little too nice.

I just eyeballed the size of the pleats and pinned them down. Once again, they don’t need to be perfect.

Sew the pleats down using a zigzag stitch.

Now for the fun part. Using the gathers made by the ruffler foot, make folds and creases in the fabric. Gather the bottom of the pleat and hold it down using some kind of a weight. I used a brick because I’m just the kind of person who has a spare brick lying around…

Here’s my technique that I usually use for making pleats for my Victorian dresses. Before I press my pleats, I spray the fabric with a mixture of vinegar and water. Use a ratio between 2:1 to 10:1 of water and vinegar. I swear, the smell fades eventually!

Next, press the creased and gathered mess. The first time I did this, I accidentally burnt a hole in my fabric. This is one of the rare cases where that it okay. It will just add to the damaged and old look. (Just, please, don’t set anything on fire…)

And bam! There you go! It’s best to do this one pleat at a time. Vary the amount of creases in each pleat to give it a unique and textured look.

Once all my pleats were pressed, I took scissors and just went to town on the bottom. I just made quick, random notches and snips at the fabric. Try not to go above the straight stitch you made.

Just repeat these steps on the next fabric strip and the next and so on until you have the length you need.

I hope this helped!