O Christmas Tree Ruffle Shirt w/ Tutorial

I am SO excited for Christmas this year!!! In fact it has been a little "hard" to get through the Thanksgiving season because I want to jump right to Christmas ;)
We all know ruffles are pretty HOT right now! One night as I lay in bed, waiting for sleep to arrive, I thought up these ruffle Christmas trees! I could hardly wait to make them!! Pretty cute, huh? Would you like to make some for your cuties?

I thought you might :)

First step, measure your ribbon. (I used Grosgrain) You'll need 5 pieces: sizes 1.5 in, 3.5 in, 5.5 in, 7.5 in, and 9.5 inches. For the trunk just cut a piece that looks about right :)

Next, heat set your ribbon ends - no picture! Kinda hard to hold the match, ribbon and camera!

Then using a straight stitch, sew down the middle of each green ribbon piece, DO NOT BACKSTITCH! Gathering the ribbon will be easiest if you set the machine to the widest stitch length

Now your ready to make your ruffles. Holding the ribbon in your left hand, gently pull the TOP thread; keep working the ribbon and thread until the entire length is ruffled.

Your ribbon strips should look like this...

Now, begin pinning your ribbon strips to your PRE-WASHED shirt,

Starting at the bottom of the tree, straight stitch each piece on to your shirt, back-stitching at the beginning and end of each ribbon. BE CAREFUL that you are only sewing the first layer of the shirt!!! I know, I did this the hard way! I thought I had separated the front from the back and I hadn't :( Trim off your thread tails.

Next, sew on your trunk and admire all those ruffles :)

Are you gettin' excited??!! It's almost finished! The last step is embellishing your tree! The sky's the limit here!

Since I have three little girls, I thought it would be fun to embellish each shirt a little different! My first tree has the button ornaments, my second shirt has the bow topper and my third shirt...well those embellies I need to look for. If I can find some cute, tiny birdie buttons; I will sew one birdie perching on the tree and then two under the tree!

Hope you enjoyed this little tutorial, it's my 1st!!! If you have any questions, please feel free to ask in the comments. If you do use my tutorial I'd love to see yours afterwards :)

Merry CHRISTmas