Ruffle Tops for Summer

Ever since I found the Ruffle Sleeve Tutorial,
I have fell in love with creating little tops for our nieces!
I decided to play around with it a little,
embellish the shoulder straps,
and change up the elastic around the middle.

First I hemmed up the bottom with just a small basic fold-over hem.
Then I did the first step in a french seam for the main seam down the back,
leaving the top few inches for the insertion of the elastic/ribbon.

I like doing the french seams, they don't leave a itchy seam to bug the girls!
Instead of doing the top of the chest all in elastic, I decided to use the ribbon
that I found that went really cute with the pink material.
I cut two pieces of elastic, attached them to the ends of the ribbon.

Next I folded the top in half and pressed so that I had a mark for the exact center,
and then folded that about 2 inches over,
pressing again to leave to marks equal from the center.
Here I made 2 buttonholes for the ribbon to come
out of in the center.
I also cut two little holes in just the back of the elastic/ribbon seam
for the ribbon to be pulled out of before weaving it
back to the front, through the buttonhole openings.
Using the trusty 'ol safety pin,
I pulled the ribbon ends out and viola!
Then I pinned the elastic ends into the french seam ends of the top.
Finished up the french seam, catching the elastic inside it.

For the sleeves I folded over the wrong side along a raw edge,
up onto the right side,
and then sewed the ribbon ontop this raw edge,
covering up the raw edge.
Then I folded over the machine-crocheted detail in the material,
so the right-side of the fabric was then on top,
making enough room for a seam for the elastic.

Along this raw edge, I cut the fabric as close as I could
to the machine-crocheted edge.
Then I used the applique stitch to sew along this edge.

Using the tutoral steps, I then attached the sleeves.
Then I pulled the ribbons tighter, gathering the top at the chest
& tied them into a pretty bow.

So cute!