Pinterest Inspired Ruffles by Dream Team Member Stacy Cohen

Dream Team Member, Stacy Cohen

Hi everyone!  Stacy Cohen here with a Pinterest-inspired post and layout.  When my scrappin’ mojo is missing in action and I’m looking for fresh ideas, I love to turn to non-scrapbooking images for inspiration.  What better place to find inspiration for design, color and techniques than Pinterest?  It’s also a great place to find many scrumptious recipes . . . but I digress.

While browsing Pinterest recently, I noticed ruffles everywhere – on clothing, handbags, household décor, bedding, and more.   There’s something that’s so ultra-feminine about soft, flowing ruffles.  Here are a few images from Pinterest:

Ruffled dress:

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DIY ruffled apron

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Ruffled bedspread from Urban Outfitters:

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Ruffled curtains:

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Ruffled tote bag:

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Inspired by all these gorgeous ruffles, I grabbed some colorful fabric and stitched up a few ruffles of my own.  I used them on this layout:

Grow by Stacy Cohen

Products used: Cardstock: American Crafts and Close to my Heart; Fabric and patterned paper: Close to my Heart; Chipboard letters: American Crafts; Flowers: Prima; Stickers: Crate Paper and Jillibean Soup; Paint: Jacquard; Die-cutting machine and die: Sizzix; Pen: American Crafts.

There are many different ways to make ruffles using either a sewing machine or by hand-stitching.  To start, cut a strip of fabric that’s approximately twice as long as you want your ruffle to be.  The fastest way to make a ruffle is to stitch along the fabric strip using a simple running stitch, then pull the thread at one end so that the fabric gathers into pleats.  I made my ruffles using a slightly different technique.   I wanted the top edge of the ruffles to lay flat on my page, so I pleated the fabric strip with my fingers as I went along and added 2-3 stitches to the top of each pleat to keep them flat.

Here’s a photo showing how I stitched my pleats:

I used dark thread and big stitches for demonstration purposes, but normally I use a thread color that blends in and I make smaller stitches that are less visible (though if you’re covering up the top of the pleats, it doesn’t really matter).

It didn’t take me long to make the set of pleats for my layout (less than 10 minutes total).  Now I’m   itching to make some more.   I hope you’ve been inspired to add some pleats to your projects!

Thanks for stopping by!