The Ruffler Foot

During the second week of stitch we were introduced to the ruffler foot. I particularly enjoyed using this as a method of creating texture in a sample. Using long lengths of ribbon or strips of material the foot will ruffle it up to a much shorter length which was varied as you changed the setting and the stitch length. Below shows the effect produced using this foot.

To begin with I found it difficult to know what to do with these lengths afterwards. After a lot of deliberation I started to try out some different sampling  ideas. In the photograph below I have hand woven a section of the above ruffled ribbon through plain white string. I really like the contrast between the high density of the woven ruffled ribbon and the flimsy white string. I think it makes the ruffles more prominent.

I then thought about how the lengths would look if they were sewn down. For this sample I chose the backing material very carefully as I did not want to ruin the piece with a fabric that was too heavyweight that would be overpowering or cheap; such as calico.

I chose a very finely woven, lightweight silk. I wanted to be able to feel the weight of the ruffles and see how, once sewn down, they would manipulate the silk with the unexpected twists and turns.