Ruffles as Icing!

My youngest daughter's upcoming birthday was the inspiration for this next project. I knew that I wanted to create a personalized shirt for her to wear to her party, and thought that a cupcake was the perfect image. 

Creating the ruffly icing was my favorite part!

(Click on any image to enlarge for detail)

No measuring was required for this project. 

I started by cutting out a base for the cupcake, 

and attaching it to the shirt with a zigzag stitch. 

My next step was to create the icing.

The icing ruffles were made by cutting long lengths of jersey cotton, 

and gathering as I went. To create a fluffy cupcake top, 

I sewed each strip very close together, 

overlapping sections, as I filled in the middle. 

Coordinating buttons were added at the top of the cake as "cherries."

My oldest loved her sister's shirt so much that she requested one of her own.

I readily complied - the "icing" was addicting to create (and fat free!).

A few tips:

- Jersey cotton is a breeze to work with; it doesn't fray, but puffs and ruffles up even more after washing and drying.

- It is not necessary to have one looong strip to create the icing ruffle. I used many shorter strips, and overlapped them as I came to the end of the previous strip. The ruffled jersey is so forgiving, you never know when one strip ends and another begins. 

- Be sure to sew the ruffles very closely together. On my first attempt, I thought I had enough ruffles, so I threw it in the wash. When it came out of the dryer, the shirt was showing through the icing, so I simply added more ruffles in the empty space.