Ever since I designed Emmery, I’ve been noticing ruffles everywhere; on the runways, in stores, on the street and TV. I got excited when I saw Lilly’s wedding dress on Gossip Girl (shhh, yes it’s my guilty pleasure). It’s a perfect example of the two types of ruffles one can use for adorning her garment with frilliness. The front of the dress had two gathered ruffles and the back was draped beautifully with circular ruffles. When I was designing Emmery I played around a lot with these two types of ruffles before I settled on one that “worked”. Thought you might like a little tutorial on ruffle making.

Gathered ruffles are rectangular in shape. When sewing, this is usually done by basting a thread along the long edge of the fabric and then pulling it to create a gather. When knitting a ruffle, this is created by casting on the number of stitches equal to the length of the edge on which you want the ruffle attached. On the next row increase into the front and back of every stitch. Work even until ruffle is desired length. The fullness of the ruffle can be adjusted by how many increases are worked. If you want a really full ruffle, try increasing into the front, back and front of every stitch. Experimentation is key with this type of ruffle. The look of the ruffle will vary depending on the weight of your yarn.

I used a gathered ruffle for trimming my Knitty Gritty Kitchen Couture Apron, which is why when I sat down to design the ruffle for Emmery, I automatically started using this method. I tried increasing and decreasing the fullness of the ruffle, but nothing looked right. It finally dawned on me that I was using the wrong type of ruffle. I needed to use a circular ruffle.

Circular ruffles (AKA flounce) are made from circles (shocking, I know). To make one from fabric, cut out a circle. From the center of that circle, cut out another circle. Make a straight line cut from the outer edge to the center. The edge of the inner circle is sewn along the edge of the garment. Calculating how big to make the circles uses fancy numbers, like magical pi. There’s a great explanation of all of that at whatthecraft.com.

When knitting a circular ruffle, you’re obviously not going to be knitting circles and cutting out center circles. That’s what’s so great about knitting – you shape the fabric as you go so it all gets done in one big swoop. Cast on the number of stitches equal to the length of the garment edge. Divide your stitches into segments. The smaller the segments are, the more flouncy your ruffle will be. For the sake of this tutorial, we’ll say 8 sts make up one segment and call the eighth stitch the “spoke” stitch. You may want to mark the spokes with stitch markers. On the right side of the ruffle, work up to the spoke st. Increase on both sides of the spoke stitch. Work to the next spoke stitch and do the same. On the wrong side rows work even. The spoke stitch will always be the same stitch, even after working the increases. Keep increasing on each side of the spoke stitches until the ruffle is desired length. Basically what you’re doing is creating little fans.

Now go make something frilly!