Amy Cornwell Designs: Tuesday Tutorial: Ruffle Belt

When my mom and I took Big E to Chicago we hit up H&M and she let me have some ALONE shopping time. Wonderful! I purchased a cute white ruffle belt to go with a red/white polka dot dress/long shirt and after I got it home I thought, I should try to make this. So I did. And the first try was a bust.

The ruffle looked like what a clown wears around his neck. Side note, have you ever googled "clown" to try to find a picture. They're all scary, horror-film clowns. No wonder I don't like them.

eek! not what I wanted at all!

The second try of the belt went a little bit better. Here's how I did it:
1. measure around your waist the exact place you want it to be. Cut your elastic to be that length, MINUS 1 inch. Cut two pieces of elastic. I wanted mine to go up onto the smallest part of my waist so I cut mine to 28 inches.

2. cut a piece of fabric that is 4" wide by the size of your waist times two. So mine was 56 inches. I had to piece together two 28" pieces of fabric to get the 56" and just sewed them together on the short edge. No worries that I am now about an inch short, I'll cut off excess at the end anyway.

3. fold twice and press 3/8" seam on each long edge. Sew a 1/4" seam on each long edge.

4. Lay your two pieces elastic close to the two edge seams and 1/2" from the short edge. Fold over the short edge of fabric and sew a seam adhering the elastic to the fabric.

5. Here is the tricky part. Set your zig zag stitch to the longest length and start sewing. You have to pull your elastic as far as it will go. This takes some work. Pull, pull, pull all the way to the bottom. You'll probably have a couple of inches of fabric left and that's okay.

6. Repeat with the second elastic. This is REALLY tricky because the first elastic wants to bunch up so you have to pull the fabric and the elastic on this one. Just try to be patient and pull it all taught so that when you get to the bottom of the second elastic you have a beautiful ruffle.

7. Cut the fabric to 1/2" of the elastics. Fold it over and sew about a 3/8" seam to close it off.

8. Our local grocery store didn't have hook and eye closures on their own, so I brought a bra extender. I cut it so that it was only 2 hook and eyes and sewed that onto each short edge.

9. It could be done here but I wanted to add a flower to the front because it just wasn't exactly like I wanted. To make the YoYo flower I cut a 6" circle and did a long stitch all around the circle. I cinched the ends of the thread and tied them together making the yoyo. Then I sewed a large vintage button in the center.