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use floss and zigzag-- with your CORDING foot! (Moderated by Deepika)
Posted on: 5/31/14 4:28 PM ET
Hi all,
This just helped me out during an upholstery project. I like zigzagging over tape-style dental floss for gathering heavy fabrics. Doing the old two-rows-of-long-stitches-with-looser-tension-on-one-thread doesn't work as well on heavy fabrics.
So, you zigzag over floss and pull on the floss to gather. (Anchor one end of the floss before pulling by inserting a pin and wrapping the floss around the pin in a figure-eight shape. Then hold your gathers in place by anchoring the second end in the same way.)
The tricky part of doing this, though, is keeping your zigzag narrow enough to have good grip and control when you gather, yet not accidentally stitching through the tape floss, which keeps you from pulling it up to make the gathers. Holding the floss taut helps. But . . .
Today I discovered something that works even better! Use a cording foot and run the floss through the middle slot of the foot. You should still hold the floss taut but the foot will keep the floss in the right relation to your needle so you don't stitch through it.
So, for a pretty heavy fabric I used a zigzag 3mm wide and 3mm long. perhaps I could have made that even narrower; maybe I should have made it shorter, for finer gathers. Experiment!
BTW set your needle so the center position for the needle, and hence your floss, is about 1/8" short of your eventual seam line (that is, closer to the seam allowance.) This allows room for your zigzag to project past your floss and still not be seen when you stitch your final seam. Another way to say this is make sure your furthest swing of the needle in "zigging" comes just inside your seamline.
I was one happy camper tho' I expect I am not the first happy camper and maybe this has already been said on this thread :-)
(Isn't "thread" the perfect name for a conversation at this forum?)
HTH!
P.S. Edited to add: I just googled and natch others have tried this; and better yet, others have additional ideas. Here's a link to several methods including hand-winding pearl cotton onto the bobbin--easy enough for kids. Pretty neat too!
other ways to gather by Maris
-- Edited on 5/31/14 4:32 PM --
This just helped me out during an upholstery project. I like zigzagging over tape-style dental floss for gathering heavy fabrics. Doing the old two-rows-of-long-stitches-with-looser-tension-on-one-thread doesn't work as well on heavy fabrics.
So, you zigzag over floss and pull on the floss to gather. (Anchor one end of the floss before pulling by inserting a pin and wrapping the floss around the pin in a figure-eight shape. Then hold your gathers in place by anchoring the second end in the same way.)
The tricky part of doing this, though, is keeping your zigzag narrow enough to have good grip and control when you gather, yet not accidentally stitching through the tape floss, which keeps you from pulling it up to make the gathers. Holding the floss taut helps. But . . .
Today I discovered something that works even better! Use a cording foot and run the floss through the middle slot of the foot. You should still hold the floss taut but the foot will keep the floss in the right relation to your needle so you don't stitch through it.
So, for a pretty heavy fabric I used a zigzag 3mm wide and 3mm long. perhaps I could have made that even narrower; maybe I should have made it shorter, for finer gathers. Experiment!
BTW set your needle so the center position for the needle, and hence your floss, is about 1/8" short of your eventual seam line (that is, closer to the seam allowance.) This allows room for your zigzag to project past your floss and still not be seen when you stitch your final seam. Another way to say this is make sure your furthest swing of the needle in "zigging" comes just inside your seamline.
I was one happy camper tho' I expect I am not the first happy camper and maybe this has already been said on this thread :-)
(Isn't "thread" the perfect name for a conversation at this forum?)
HTH!
P.S. Edited to add: I just googled and natch others have tried this; and better yet, others have additional ideas. Here's a link to several methods including hand-winding pearl cotton onto the bobbin--easy enough for kids. Pretty neat too!
other ways to gather by Maris
-- Edited on 5/31/14 4:32 PM --
Posted on: 5/31/14 7:53 PM ET
Thank you for the gathering tip and the link! With a six month old grandaughter to sew for I see yards of gathers in my future.
Posted on: 6/1/14 6:16 AM ET
Wonderful tip! I switched to a technique I saw Nancy Z demo to make ruffles. She pulled up bobbin thread, pulled it to the length of the fabric being ruffled and ran a zz over that.
So I am going to try your tip next time by winding the floss on the bobbin and pulling it out like I do the bobbin thread next time I am dealing with heavy fabrics.
------
So I am going to try your tip next time by winding the floss on the bobbin and pulling it out like I do the bobbin thread next time I am dealing with heavy fabrics.
------
Needlework brings joy and meaning to my life...member of ASG
Now using: Singer 301, Pfaff 6152 & BL Enlighten serger
Now using: Singer 301, Pfaff 6152 & BL Enlighten serger
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