JCrew Asymmetrical Ruffle tee knock off and tutorial!

JCrew Asymmetrical Ruffle tee knock off and tutorial!

• 2.18.2010

First of all, thank you all so much for your comments and thoughts on my last JCrew knock off!!  I'm glad you like the ruffle tank, and I hope you all can try it at home!

As I promised, here's another embellished tee I copied at home:
It's there in the name: the Asymmetrical Ruffle tee!!  How can you screw up if it's supposed to be asymmetrical?  This was a really fun one to copy.

Super slouchy model.  Ick.  I love JCrew but their models are too thin (not that that's rare or anything).

There's the back, and here it is in another color so you can see the ruffles better:

Looks pretty easy to copy!
I started with this (technically pajama) tee from Target.  It was $3.24 on clearance.

It's ring-spun just like the JCrew one, so it was perfect!  Had the v-neck and everything.  You could use any tee but a tight-ribbed, snugly fitting one wouldn't be best.
So here's the tutorial:

• Cut off the sleeves.

• Hem the (now short) sleeves.

• Back to the cutting board: Cut open the sleeves and chop off the serged seam allowance.  Also cut off the cuff hem.

• Even up the sleeve pieces so you have two big rectangles instead of two top-chopped-off triangles.

• Using my handy see-through ruler, I cut one of the sleeves into evenly sized 1.5" wide strips.  These will become the ruffles that go all around the neck.

• Next, cut more (larger, 2") strips out of the other sleeve piece.  These will be the wider ruffles that go on one side of the neck.

• Sew all the 1.5" ruffles together and sew all the 2" ruffles together.  Press seams open.

• Sew along one side of both strip pieces, large stitches and tight tension.
• Pull on the top thread and gather the strips.

• Pin the 1.5" wide ruffle (pointing up) around the neck of the tee.  Sew it down.  Sew through the neck band--extra strength, anchors it down, covers the original neckline.

• Pin the 2" ruffle down, pointing down, on the right side of the neckline wrapping around the back.  See the original for an example.  Sew it down.

• Only sew to a point just above the V.  Cut the ruffle off at this point.

• Pin the other half of the 2" ruffle down on top of the first part.  Sew.

• You'll notice on the JCrew version that the top wide ruffle is tapered.  Trim the top ruffle at an angle.

That's it!