Ruffled shrug, take 2

Chloe's back from spending part of her spring break with grandma, so this morning I set to work on her little ruffle shrug. This was actually one of my tee shirts earlier today. I should have taken 'before' pictures, but I don't usually have that much confidence that my re-models will be blog worthy. One thing that I love here is the grosgrain ribbon I used to cover the inside seam. On Cadie's I used gingham bias tape, which was sweet, but it didn't pop out like those polka-dots against the stripes.

I tried to use my sewing machine's gathering foot to do the "easy ruffle" technique that I keep talking about, but this time it would not work on the knit fabric. I'm not sure why ... it worked okay on yesterday's knit fabric. I got out a woven scrap to see if something was wrong with my machine's settings, but it turned all nice and ruffly, so that gathering foot must just not like this particular fabric.

I pondered for just an instant the possibility of gathering the "old-fashioned" way, and then decided to try making little pleats as I went along. 

Again, I didn't take pictures because I had little confidence that I would want to show it off. But it was easy. I made a little pleat, sewed over it, and then made another one. They aren't perfectly spaced, but who's gonna know or care? 

I think I'll have to make a part II for the easy ruffle tutorial, and that will be the even easier pleated ruffle.