Learning New Techniques - Ruffles!!

I've been following See Kate Sew for a while, and right now she is hosting a whole month of ruffles! I haven't used a ton of ruffles in my sewing, mostly because they can be so time consuming to create. Well, I finally bit the bullet and bought a ruffler foot...*dramatic music, please*

If you hadn't noticed (perhaps because you don't memorize my sewing machines), this thing is not attached to my usual sewing machine, my Brother XL2600...oh no. Why, you might ask?

This is why. The scrap on the left was ruffled to death with totally disgusting, horribly executed "ruffles." They do not even qualify, really, because the tension was so horribly off...or something. And the foot didn't seem to fit quite right on the machine. It just seemed off, and despite a couple hours trolling around looking for answers, I decided to just put it on the Big Brother, my SE-400. Much better!

Sorry, Little Brother. You lose on this one. Your big brother is just too advanced, and fine tuned, or...something. The foot fits, and ruffled beautifully. Can't wait to use it on a real project! What I did work on today was a summer shirt, while I was home after catching a virus from one of the kiddos at work (I mean, how long can you avoid catching a bug when the kiddo has a 102* fever and is sneezing in your face? No amount of hand washing and Emergen-C can account for that).

Ta-da! This was initially going to be a nightgown, however I couldn't come up with a pattern I liked. But this beautiful garment emerged organically from my failed project and I just love it! It is made from an organic cotton voile that I bought a long time ago at Gather Here. I've never sewn with this fabric before, but it is true what they say...it drapes nicely and feels like buttuh! (Little throw back, remember Mike Meyers on SNL? Those were good times.) 

I also tried a new technique...shirring! I don't know how I've never tried this before. I used elastic thread and just sewed lots of basting stitches along my fabric. And voila! A cute, stretchy strapless top for summer!

I added a little ruffle at the neckline to give it a little more coverage and a bit of a sweetheart look to it. It is so breezy and light and cozy!

I need to take some nicer pictures, but I'll do that another day. For now, I'm pooped. Time for bed, and hopefully my headache and chills will work themselves out of my system.