Making ruffles can be very time consuming, I have shown you before how to gather fabric, but there is an easier way. The ruffler foot! And knowing your settings is going to help you even more when you are sewing your projects.
The ruffler foot
This little machine is called a ruffler foot. It helps you ruffle your fabric easily, it only costs 5-10$ and will save you a lot of time! The machine has two settings you can adjust, the number of stitches and the depth of the pleats you want to make.
This foot is very easy to attach, yet somehow different to others you may have tried. You just need to unscrew your foot and position the ruffler foot. Make sure the hook is attached to the bar and you screw it back in position tight as it tends to become loose.
Depth of the stitches
The depth of the pleats depends on the little setting on the bottom of your ruffler foot. You will get several numbers and you will get different results, from very deep pleats to very shallow gathers.
Here is an example of several settings of the ruffler. The length of your finished piece will vary according to these setting. All these pieces started as a rectangle of cotton fabric 30cm long. I can’t guarantee that all the pieces will end up being the same length. On the contrary, I found that small pieces and light fabrics ruflle much more than their counterparts.
Number of stitches
The number of stitches is exactly that, how many stitches the machine will do before it ruffles the fabric. Number 1 could be seen as 1 stich, 1 ruffle, 1 stitch, 1 ruffle. Number 6 would be 1,2,3,4,5,6, ruffle, 1,2,3,4,5,6 ruffle. You can guess what happens if you set it to 12. Keep in mind that if you are using a long stitch your ruffles will be further appart as opposed to using a short stitch.
The star means you can do a straight stitch as if the ruffler wasn’t attached, basically means the machine will work as if you had a normal walking foot. It is very useful when you need to finish the stitch or have to fix a little mistake before you keep ruffling fabric.
Remember that this machine also can sew two fabrics together at the same time, one straight and one pleated. This feature will save you a lot of time if you need to add gatherings to the end of a garment.
This little tool is very useful and will help you sew your projects much faster. However, the foot has its limits and the pleats are not very deep. Unfortunately. you won’t be able to do a pleated skirt with this tool but it can become your best friend if you are doing a project with lots of ruffle details llike a petticoat or my burlesque bustle skirt.
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