I made this plum ruffle tee this weekend, inspired by Susan’s ruffle pillows. I really like how it turned out and I’m excited to experiment more with ruffles. In hind site, I probably should have made the ruffles go all around the back but I really didn’t want to do that much work. Scroll down for more specific instructions if you’d like to make your own.

I started with a plain old white t shirt, mine was $7 from h&m.I cut two strips of pretty plum linen into tubes (sewing all ends together except one short side). I lay a piece of fishing wire straight down the middle of each tube and sewed a large zigzag on top of the wire, straight down the middle of the tube. I tried it without the wire and when I pulled the string to ruffle it, the string broke. I needed something stronger, Susan suggested using the fishing wire (click on photo below to enlarge detail)Then I pinned and sewed the ruffles onto the scoop. I actually hand stitched them, but I probably could have used a machine, going very very slowly to make sure the stitches are going where I want them and not sewing down the ruffles. I didn’t pull the wire out until it was all sewed down since that is what was keeping it ruffled, not the string.
Voila!