How To Make An Easy, No Pattern, Ruffle Top

Let’s make a ruffle top together!

Fibromyalgia Day (May 12th!) is fast approaching, so that means it’s time to sew a special something for Fibromyalgia Day!

Fibromyalgia Day, or as I like to call it, Purple Day. Is the day when we all wear purple together in support of people with Fibromyalgia. We wear purple together to raise awareness of Fibromyalgia. I’ll be wearing purple this year, and I hope you’ll join me!

This year, I wanted to make something lightweight and comfortable for Fibromyalgia Day, and it had to follow the purple theme. Additionally, it would be ideal if it was not difficult to make and it didn’t take too many hours to complete. Because who has time to focus on a project for too long when you’re going through a bad pain day?!

This DIY is super easy and fast to put together, I’m sure you’ll love it! Honestly, the most time-consuming thing is trying to get your pins to stay in your tulle. There’s no pattern needed and you can use your fabric scraps!

Let’s jump in and make a purple top for Fibromyalgia Day.

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Approximate time to completion: 1 day, 3 hours

Disclaimer: I am trying to teach myself the Metric System, so I will always try to include both measurements in my tutorials, i.e. centimeters and inches, meters, and yards. Though in my everyday sewing life lately, I have been using them rather interchangeably, I apologize if I miss including both or switch between the two too often.

Fabric Notes

One tweak I want to point out before we jump into making this Fibromyalgia Day top is you can make this top out of literally any fabric you desire. But, if you make this top out of a different fabric than tulle, your Fibromyalgia top will be even easier and faster to make.

I find tulle a bit difficult and frustrating to work with because it easily moves around and is so thin your pins fall through it. Half the time my pieces all end up cut slightly different than each other because they moved while I was cutting and I end up having to trim everything to match in the end.

Pro Tip: This top can totally be reversible. If you want it to be, keep that in mind when you pick out your fabrics! Tulle is fun because it’s so thin it creates a new color when you lay two colored pieces together.

Take Your Measurements

To make this top for Fibromyalgia Day you’re not going to need a pattern, you’re just going to need to take your measurements and start cutting fabric. This top is very similar to the Square-Neck Gathered Dress we made here so you should check out that tutorial next if you want something similar but a little longer!

To start, take your fabric tape measure and follow the formula I laid out for you below. Make sure you take note of each of your measurements.

For the top:

• The height from above the breast to the desired start of the ruffle + 1.25″ (3cm) = height
• Bust measurement + 4″ (10cm) ÷ 2 = width

Cut a total of four rectangular pieces for the top.

For the bows:

• Cut four pieces on fold: 3″ (8cm) by 21.75″ (55cm) or desired length.
• Alternatively, you can cut eight pieces if you want it reversible and/or if you want your two tulle colors to be sandwiched together for your own color creation.

If you want the top to be reversible, instead you can cut the strap pieces not on fold so that we can have a different color on each side. I recommend you play around with how your tulle looks when it is laid together before you start cutting. I had very little scrap fabric left and wasn’t able to experiment too much. But, tulle creates incredible color combinations when you lay pieces on top of each other and totally different results when you sandwich them. Play around and decide what’s best for you!

For the ruffle tier(s):

• Bust + 4″ (10cm) X 4 = length, by desired height of ruffle
• You can do as many as you want following the same measurement

You will want to cut a total of two, one in each color you’re doing. Or if your fabric is not long enough you can cut four pieces (two of each fabric) at the half measurement needed. I did this.

I was going to do two ruffles originally but had too little fabric and was only able to get in one. If you’re going to do more than one ruffle, make the very bottom piece taller by 3.50″ (9cm) for each ruffle you decide to add. So that you can sew each ruffle to the base layer and then sew the base ruffle to the top. If you do this your top cannot be reversible.

Let me know in the comments if any of that was not clear and you need more information.

Getting Started

Now that you have all your measurements, cut your pieces.

You should have four rectangles for the top. Two to four strips for your ruffle, depending on how long your fabric is and how many ruffles you’re doing. And you should have eight pieces cut on fold for the straps.

I made this purple top out of scrap fabric, but found I was a little short on material and couldn’t complete it with what I had. So I chose to make it out of two different fabrics instead of the originally planned one. I think it turned out even better than it would have had it just been with the purple. I like it a lot better!

Also in this picture you can see I tried to do a second ruffle tier (the fabric at the bottom of the photo), but I didn’t have enough fabric to complete it.

Sewing The Top Pieces

First let’s sew the the rectangles for the top. We’ll need to cut an angle for the armpits before we can sew the whole thing together.

Lay all of your rectangle pieces on top of each other. Fold your rectangles in half and cut a curve on the raw edge to create an armpit spot. You can eyeball this or measure from the top corner straight down by 3.25″ (8cm) and in from the top corner by 4″ (10cm). Cut this with a slight curve.

The pins you can see along the top edge in the picture were just here to keep it all from moving on me. We will not be sewing the top edge.

Pin two top pieces together along the side seams to create a top, repeat with the other fabric so you have a total of two strapless tops. If you have two different color fabrics make sure you do those colors together, e.g. purple with purple. Sew and zig-zag stitch or overlock the side seams only.

Sewing The Straps

Pin your straps, one layer of tulle inside the other, good sides facing for all of them. Pin along the long edges and down one side. Sew and zig-zag stitch or overlock all of these.

If you want the top to be reversible, instead you can cut the strap pieces not on fold and pin them together so there’s a different color on each side. Then sew and zig-zag stitch or overlock these together.

After you’ve sewn everything together flip the straps right sides out, and top stitch. You can Zig-Zag stitch or overlock the one raw edge.

Sewing The Ruffle(s)

Pin the ruffle pieces together along the sides first, to create one long strip. Zig-zag stitch or overlock the raw seam.

Place your two long ruffle pieces together. Pin these together along the side edges and along one of the long sides of the fabric. Sew and zig-zag stitch or overlock the raw seam edge.

Flip right side out. Pin and sew a top stitch to keep the tulle from sliding all over the place.

Sew and zig-zag stitch or overlock the raw edge. Then sew a loose stitch around the top raw edge and gather.

Assemble The Fibromyalgia Top

Next pin your top together at the side seams, but before you sew it sandwich your straps in the middle of the layers of tulle at the corners. Make sure you have the good sides of the top facing together in the middle, with side seam edges facing out. Sew all along the top edge to join the two tops into one.

Turn everything right side out and pin all around the top and bottom edges and top stitch to keep everything in place.

If you have multiple rows of ruffles you will need to take the bottom ruffle piece that is the tallest and pin each of the ruffles in ascending order on top of the bottom ruffle and sew these in place. This would need to happen before you can attach the ruffle to the top.

Pin the ruffle (or collection of ruffles) in place to the raw edge on your top. Whichever edge you want facing outward on the finished top will need to be facing your top when you pin it in place. This purple edge of the ruffle is the inside of my top since I opted not to make mine reversible.

Sew and zig-zag stitch or overlock the raw edge after you sew. If you’re making this top reversible you will need to finish the edge so you can wear the top either way. You can finish it with a little biased tape made out of your fabric or in a matching color, or, if you’re using tulle, you might be able to just top stitch it in place and you won’t notice it. I actually did this to my side seams because I accidentally sewed the top together inside out. With the top stitching on the side seams, I can’t even tell that it’s messed up!

And just like that you’re finished! Woo! It’s time to celebrate!

This is the quickest sewing tutorial we’ve made together to date! I’m so proud of us!

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Check back next week for some ways to style this Fibromyalgia Day top. I had so much fun putting together some outfits for you!

To learn more about Fibromyalgia check out the Beginners Guide to Fibromyalgia. Be sure to share it with your friends and family so together we can celebrate Fibromyalgia and bring awareness to it. Remember, Fibromyalgia Day (May 12th) is the day we wear purple together to raise awareness. I like to call it Purple Day. Will you be joining me this year?

If you decide to give this project a go, tag me on Instagram @doorsandfloorsblog and use the hashtag #D&FBlog so I can see what you make!

Do you like quick and easy scrap fabric sewing projects like this, or do you prefer more complicated projects? Let me know in the comments!

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P.S. Looking for a fun activity you can do with a friend while working on tedious crafty tasks, download our free trivia here.

Playing trivia is a great way to keep your mind active and have fun with your crafty friends and family while busting out those seam ripping, crocheting, and other time-consuming, but necessary, crafty tasks.