The Madonna Ruffle Top

Little Miss loves her new shirt. It's pink and it has a tutu! In her world, shirts don't get much better than that.

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The pattern for the shirt was "The Madonna Ruffle Top" from Shwin Designs.  You can find the link here.  The directions were good and the pattern was fairly simple. I loved all the pictures. Since I hadn't sewn on knit in years (decades), I'm glad I bought matching thread. That way when things were a bit off, it didn't show and I didn't have to unpick. Having never used a double needle before, I was a bit nervous. However, I did a couple of test runs, adjusted the tension, and went for it.

The results looked great. The ruffles were easy to cut out, but tedious. I think next time I'm going to use my curing mat, ruler, and rotary cutter to speed up the process. I'm also going to mark on the bodice where each row of ruffles' top should line up, before I start sewing any ruffles on. As mentioned above, I loved the look of the double needles. However, my machine's manual mentions using a cord when sewing it to help with the tension. Next time I'd like to try using the cord.

This was a fun pattern to sew. A little bit time consuming due to all the gathering of the ruffles, but not bad. Little Miss loves it so much and is in need of a new dress or two. I have extra of this fabric, so I'm planning on lengthening it a bit, possibly flaring the skirt out and adding a few more layers of ruffles. I think I'll make the ruffles a bit bigger and spread them out a bit more for the skirt portion. If I make another shirt, I plan on leaving it just as it is.