Ruffle top socks tutorial...and Miss N plays with thread

So it all started with a LOVE for little girls in ruffle socks. There is nothing that says I AM LOVED more clearly than a big hair bow on the head and ruffle socks around the toes. If you feel the same than this little toot is for you.

As I am starting to get things together for fall a run to the local boutique was in order. I picked up a pack of ruffle top socks and paid a fortune (6.99) for 2 pair but I needed them right then as the ones from last season were sadly out grown.

After returning home and plundering through some stash goods I found just enough left over islet ruffle to try my hand at ruffle top socks. It was easer then I thought it would be…

The plain top socks were purchased on sale for less than a dollar a pair…what a deal! That’s more than 7 pair for the price of the boutique ones.

Now for the fun part, putting my ingenuity to work.

I removed the header from the top of the pre gathered islet. This left a ragged mess that needed to be trimmed. I could have used the expensive flat islet but as I was just learning I wanted to play it safe and use the inexpensive left over stuff.

I gave the islet a nice press and identified the right from the wrong side.

I measured up from the bottom edge of the islet enough to even out the raw edge. I then cut along this line.

I measured the wide stretched opening of the sock and doubled this amount to determine the needed length of islet

 

Then I turned under only about 1/8 of an inch along the cut edge and along both ends.

With a few pins I marked the center of the islet and the right and left on the sock . I did this because I want the seam on the inside of the ankle.

                              

Then I set my machine to a wide long zigzag…(6,3)

I pinned the islet with ends overlapping just a bit (1/8 of an inch)

With needle down I pulled the sock as tight as I could so the islet would lay flat Wrong side of islet to right side of the sock.

I made sure the center mark on the islet matched up with the outside ankle mark.

Once I finished stitching around the top of the sock I did a quick zigzag along the overlap at the inside of the ankle.

And the finished product was cuter than anything I have ever bought at a boutique for only about $1.00 per pair.

Just think of the possibilities, use those little bits of lace from heirloom sewing projects, talking about fancy socks. Try dieing the lace to match different outfits, maybe some beadding with a piece of ribbon woven through it might look cute? Hope you have a blast showing the ones in your life that they are loved, from the top of their head to their little toes!

And while I worked Miss N had fun playing with my not so often used spools of thread. I secured all the thread tails as to avoid a really big mess and put them into a basket. Miss N enjoyed dumping them in a rainbow of color and putting them on the pegs of the thread storage box! What simple Sunday fun!