Men's Shirt Makeover: the Ruffle Edition

Well, for those of you who enjoyed the first instalment on my Men’s Shirt Makeover, I now have the second one!  Ruffles are a fun way to jazz anything up, and not only are they popular, they are also quite easy to do.

The tutorial itself is available as a free downloadable pdf, from my “Free Downloads” page.

I first did a ruffle on my Coffee Date Dress which is an amazing and free pattern available from The Selfish Seamstress.  I loved her version of the ruffle so much, I borrowed the idea for this Men’s Shirt Makeover.

If you are a beginner sewist, it helps to follow the Original Men’s Shirt Makeover first (pdf available on my “Free Downloads” page), as it tells you how to prep the shirt and make the strap, belt and casing in further detail.  From thereon, you can follow the Ruffle edition and any subsequent versions I make.

In this edition, I’ve used the sleeves (you’ll need a men’s LONG-SLEEVED button-up shirt) to make the ruffle, and turned the shirt around so that the back of the tunic has the buttons, and the front is plain.   Because most men’s shirts are patterned with more fullness in the back, the tunic may hang awkwardly (although probably no one will notice) but this is easily remedied with a cute belt around the waist.

In the tutorial I mention using the Understitching Technique. For beginners, this may be awkward but after the first try or two, you’ll feel more comfortable with it. For more help on understitching, I’ve found this YouTube video quite helpful.

As always, I welcome any questions you may have.  Happy Sewing!  Please share your finished Men’s Shirts & any other version you come up with!

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