I know that "old timer" method and have used it for years, but I love the ruffler foot. It's so quick and easy to use it to gather and attach the ruffle in one step! Great for baby girl clothes.

this is alsothe way I was taught at least 50+ years ago.

So does mine, however the gathers are not adjustable and this method is. The advantage is you can adjust the ruffle to the base fabric very easily, as opposed to having to figure out a ratio of fullness of gather to length of base fabric. When you are sewing the ruffle into a curved seam that can be a tricky calculation. Isn't it great we have so many techniques available to our sewing needs.

I just put a ruffle around a whole quilt lately and I just zig zagged over some cotton sheen thread and it worked great. I didn't have to worry about the thread breaking and when I sewed the to the quilt I just pulled the thicker thread out.

I was taught the "2 rows of stitching" many, many years ago. It has always worked for me and I adhere to the theory--if it isn't broken, then don't fix it!

Isn't it great, that's how I've been doing it for years.

I too do ruffles the way Neesie does them. Started by sewing a pair of slippers from washcloths & that was 57 yrs ago!!
My goodness time flies.:D:thumbup:

This is the way I was taught also, many years ago.

I like Stitchnripper's idea of sewing over a piece of floss or thread...seems like it would take a lot less time.

When I first learned to make set in sleeves, (in 1948!), we pinned the top of the sleeve cap to the seam line. There usually was a notch there, pinned the notches on front and back, then put pins in all around the cap of the sleeve, dividing in half each time, adding pins until they were about 1/4 inch apart, and then sewed on the seam line, making sure there were no puckers. A little steam and a few rubs with a thumb nail, and the sleeve was in perfectly with no pleats. I was very grateful when I learned to sew two rows of stitching around the top of the sleeve to gather in the top. A few less pins to pick me!
I raised four girls, and wore out my Singer ruffler. In 1978, I started square dancing, and the most fun thing about that was making all those beautiful skirts, with lots of ruffles. Sometimes I sewed ruffles onto the skirt in one step. I'm still wearing some of those ruffles, as I still square dance every chance I get. I love making ruffles.