Anthea Blouse Ruffle Hack

by Sharlene Oldroyd April 16, 2023

We have a beautiful selection of embroidered fabrics this season with scalloped borders along the selvedge. This feature is perfect for using on the hem of your garments or to make a feature ruffle. There is lots of inspiration from Ready to Wear brands of how you can use this feature on your garment.

I fell for this embroidered double gauze as soon as I saw it. The wavey pattern was different to the usual floral embroidered fabrics. There are a few patterns available with ruffles featured on various parts of the garment but I knew I wanted the puffy sleeve of the Anna Allen Anthea Blouse for this fabric.

Scalloped Border Embroidered Cotton Double Gauze in White (this fabric also comes in Navy)

I had to make a few easy tweaks to the pattern to get the look I was after.

The first step was to split the front and back piece of the Anthea Blouse. I started the line at the shoulder notch and curved it slightly towards the front. I drew a line on my pattern pieces and retraced these separately onto fresh tracing paper. I then added 1cm seam allowance along this new seam.

New pattern pieces

For the ruffle I used the shape of the ruffle on the Fibre Mood Tammy dress and lengthened it to 80cm which I would cut on the fold. The total ruffle length was 160cm which I would be cutting along the scalloped edge of the fabric. I didn’t want the ruffle to be the full length of the front and back as I want the option on to wear the blouse over trousers or tucked in. I started the ruffle 12cm up from the bottom edges.

Ruffle shape

For the construction of the garment, I first sewed the front and back shoulders of each front and back piece. I then gathered the ruffle and attached it to the centre front/back piece, and then attached the side front/back piece with the ruffle sandwiched in between. The rest of the garment was constructed as per the instructions.

Attaching the ruffle to the centre front and back pieces.

Attaching the side front and back

Once the ruffle was attached to both front and back pieces I topstitched the seam to the centre front/ centre back piece to help it lay on the right side.

The finished blouse

This pattern hack will work for many different top and dress patterns. You could add a similar ruffle to the True Bias Shelby dress which already has separate front and back pieces. You could also add a ruffle to the bodice of the Tilly and the Buttons Indigo Dress or Sew Liberated Hinterland Dress. You could also add a ruffle to the Lise Tailor Janie Jumpsuit.

True Bias Shelby Dress

Tilly and the Buttons Indigo Dress

Sew Liberated Hinterland Dress

Lise Tailor JanieJumpsuit

If you don’t want to hack a pattern there are a few that already feature a ruffle details that is perfect for sewing with one of our scalloped border embroidered fabrics. The Tilly and the Buttons Marnie dress and blouse features the option for a ruffle. The Fibre Mood Tammy dress also has a ruffle in a v shape and can be made with our without sleeves. The Bella Loves Patterns Flor Dress and Top is a wrap style with ruffles.

Tilly and the Buttons Marnie

Fibre Mood Tammy Dress from Special Issue 1

Bella Loves Patterns Flor Dress and Top

Tips for working with embroidered fabrics

I used a Frixion pen to mark all my notches on this fabric as the holes were close to some of them and I could not have snipped into the fabric.

When placing the centre front pattern pieces on the fabric I tried to avoid the areas with the most embroidery so make sewing the buttonholes a little easier.

It was tricky cutting through 2 layers of this embroidered double gauze so you may find cutting on a single layer easier.

Scalloped Border Embroidered Fabrics

Scroll on for a selection of the scalloped border embroidered fabrics we have in stock, from classic white Broderie Anglaise to printed viscose. Or you can visit our Embroidered Fabrics section to browse all of them.