Well, the bad news is that, if you’ve been following SYTYC, I got booted during this last round, with the ruffles. I really thought I was going to make it through, but there you go.
My project was the ombré ruffled tote bag. I am not really a ruffles person, so I found it difficult to come up with a project. And I don’t have any little girls at home who are desperate for something ruffly to run around in this summer.
I do love how my bag turned out. I got some canvas in this lovely limish-green color, which is one of my faves lately. Then I bought a bunch of ruffle—7 yards, to be exact—and some Rit Dye in purple. I sewed together a nice sized tote bag, and then I set to work dyeing the ruffle. Cutting it into 9 different pieces, I dyed each one successively darker, to achieve an ombré effect once I lined them up. I’ve never used Rit Dye before so it was a good introduction to dyeing my own textiles.
When the ruffles were dry, I carefully sewed them to the bag, making sure the lines were straight and that the distance between each was even. The ruffles go all the way around the bag, so it was a little painstaking.
But worth it. And I hope you agree!
Come back soon because I’m going to post my project for next week, which I had to finish before I knew I was out of the competition and spent hours and hours photographing and putting together. I will do a tutorial on it as well. The theme is “summer.”
Beth, I am not much of a ruffle person either, but I thought your bag was great! I can’t wait to see your summer project. xoxo