Here’s a little bonus post for our Kelly skirt sewalong – a gathered ruffle tier hem! You know I love a good ruffle hem, and we just recently went over how to add one to the Wattle skirt. But I wanted to show you how I add one to a placket skirt like Kelly. I made it so that the ruffle tier is closed. Meaning that the placket opens up until the ruffle tier, but then is closed. So you have to step into the skirt. Here, let me show you what I mean!
First, you need to determine the length of your skirt before you add the ruffle tier. The midi-length was too long for me, but the above-knee length was too short. So I went somewhere in between – about 3″ below the above-knee length.
Again, this is up to you. You could keep it at midi length and make a maxi skirt with the tier!
Sew your skirt as normal, all the way up until the hem. Just don’t sew the hem.
Overlap the placket at the bottom of the skirt.
Stitch across the placket to hold it together.
Now you need to cut your rectangle pieces for the ruffle tier.
I used my back skirt piece as a guide and made the length of the rectangle 2x the width of the pattern piece.
For height, I went with 13″ (this includes 5/8″ seam allowance and 2″ hem allowance.
You need to cut two of these rectangles ON THE FOLD. So you have two extra-long pieces.
Place the two rectangles on top of each other with right sides together.
Sew 5/8″ from the raw edge on both short ends. Finish the raw edges with your preferred method.
Set your machine to a long straight basting stitch.
Sew two sets of two rows of gathering stitching, side seam to side seam, as shown above
Make sure you don’t backstitch and leave long thread tails for each row.
Before you start gathering, make sure you mark the centre of each side, so they can be matched up with the centre front and centre back of the skirt.
Gently pull on the thread tails to gather the fabric.
Keep gathering until the tier is about the same width as the skirt.
Place your skirt in front of you, upside down, with right side of the fabric facing out.
With the tier inside out, place the skirt inside the tier, so right sides of the fabric are facing each other.
Line up the raw edges and pin them in place.
Sew together 5/8″ from the raw edge. Finish the raw edge with your preferred method.
Flip the ruffle tier down and press the seam allowance up towards the skirt.
Now we just need to hem the tier. Turn under the raw edge by 1″ and press.
Turn under again another 1″ to enclose the raw edge. Press and pin.
Stitch close to the folded edge.
All done!
LOOKING FOR MORE KELLY POSTS?
Here’s the full list of Kelly Tutorials:
- Sewalong: Pockets and Side Seams
- Sewalong: Placket
- Sewalong: Pleats
- Sewalong: Gathers
- Sewalong: Waistband
- Sewalong: Elastic Back Waistband
- Sewalong: Buttonholes and Buttons
- Sewalong: Hem
- Hack: Closed Ruffle Tier Hem (this post!)
DON’T HAVE THE PATTERN YET?
