JCrew's Grand Ruffle tank knock-off! Tutorial

JCrew's Grand Ruffle tank knock-off! Tutorial

• 2.15.2010

JCrew's lovely tees and tanks are so cute and so easy to copy.  For my first one this season I copied the Grand Ruffle tank.  Here's the original:

Theirs comes in lots of pretty colors, and I used this long-sleeved turquoise tee to transform.  It was on special for $5 at Target, but it never fit right, so I wasn't planning to miss it.

So here's the tutorial!

• Take your shirt, artfully cut off the sleeves.  JCrew's has raw-ish rolled edges, too, so you don't have to worry about hemming if you cut off right at the seam.

•  Cut the sleeve open down the long seam and cut the serging off.

• Even out the sleeve pieces.  I cut mine to different widths, because the bottom ruffle is about an inch wider than the top ruffle.

• You'll notice I didn't square off the sleeve top, and I did this because I was worried about the length of the ruffle pieces.  Ideally, they would be about 1.5 times the length of the tee from neck to hem, but I think this tee was a little too long or the neck too high or something since mine are barely long enough.  Hope yours works out better.  Here's my comparison.

• Not quite long enough, but I tried to make it work.  Now, mark the center of your ruffles and do a long seam down it, big stitch and tight tension.

• Position the widest ruffle on the tee, matching its center to the center front at the top and bottom.  Pin it down.

• Sew along the center seam, just right on top of your gathering stitches.

• Repeat these last two steps, centering the top ruffle.  Now you have something that looks almost like the JCrew version, and you could stop here, but I chose to do some hand sewing to finish.  I sewed down the tops of the ruffles at the neck to keep them in place and keep them from flopping down.

• I also tacked down the ruffle in places to keep it fanned out rather than drooping down.  Depending on the weight and stiffness of your tee, you may not need to do this.

• That's it!

This tank was super fun to make.  Maybe I will do another one if I wear this one a lot!  I should point out that JCrew uses tulle or net for the bottom ruffle, but I didn't have any of this in my color.  So you could try that, or using any other similar fabric in the same color.