Many sewn items have, or could have, ruffles – – skirts, aprons, towels, quilts, pillows, and even purses. The ruffler foot makes creating ruffles so easy that you’ll wonder why you waited so long to get this wonderful attachment for your machine.
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While the ruffler appears to be a complicated mechanical creature from some science fiction movie, what the ruffler foot is able to do makes it a valuable add-on for the sewing machine. It allows you to create ruffles faster and more precisely than any manual method.

You can choose from a limited selection of how frequently a pleat will be made and how much material will be in each pleat. Pleat frequency is based on stitch count and stitch length. Ruffle fullness is determined by how much material is in each pleat. The combination of frequency, fullness, and fabric thickness creates a large variation in the final characteristics of a particular ruffle.

An adjusting lever is used to select how many stitches are sewn between each pleat. The star or “0” slot produces a straight stitch. This selection allows you to do straight stitching without removing the ruffler.  The “1” slot creates a new pleat with every stitch. The “6” slot creates a new pleat every six stitches, and the “12” slot, a new pleat every twelve stitches. There is no substitute for experimenting with the specific fabric that you intend to ruffle to develop an understanding of what all this means.

The knob or screw, (it might be silver, orange, grey or another color, depending on the brand) changes how deep the pleat or ruffle will be. For smaller pleats, turn the knob to the left. For larger pleats, turn the knob to the right.

For deepest pleat, turn adjusting screw clockwise to its maximum. For shallower pleats, turn adjusting screw out (counter-clockwise).

Refer to the ruffler instruction sheet for installation details.

Ruffling the fabric:

1. Cut some fabric test strips to use for experimenting and finding the right setting for your project. Different fabric weights will give you different results.
2. I started with 10 inch lengths of fabric and just changed the stitch length for the samples shown above. You may need to vary the stitch length and fullness for your project.  When a suitable sample  was created, I measured the ruffled length to determine a conversion length of flat material to finished ruffle (the top sample is 2.5 inches finished to 10 inches flat). With this conversion number, I was then able to determine the minimum length of fabric I needed. You can always cut off any excess ruffled fabric, so it just makes sense to add some extra flat fabric length to avoid coming up short for your project.

3. Place the fabric strip to be ruffled between the two blades and through the first separator guide.

4. Lower presser bar and stitch. Do not back tack at the beginning or the end.
5. The maximum seam allowance is 1 1/8” for my ruffler. This distance is determined by the curved metal guide on the right-hand side. To create a ruffle with a stitching line in the center I cut my fabric 2 1/4” wide.
6. When you finish the strip it will look more like a ruffle. If you press the fabric it will look like pleats.

7. You can create a ruffle in place on another piece of fabric (the base fabric). Place the base fabric right-side up on the feed dogs. Place the ruffle fabric right-side down between the separator blades.  The stitch line can be anywhere on the base fabric according to the desired location of  ruffle. A guide mark (chalk or maybe masking tape) should be located at the right edge of the desired ruffle location as the stitch line is covered by the flat ruffle fabric strip while sewing.