This is my hands down favorite serger trick….at least today it is. Gathering! I am the mother of 3 girls which means that my life involves lots of ruffly things. Even accessories and embellishments are gathered. Everything from the pillows on their beds to the hem of skirts have ruffles on them. And lets not even talk about things like Halloween costumes. Every princess has been created in my sewing room.
Needless to say, I know gathering. And this is MY favorite way.
The pattern suggests doing 2 lines of basting, each 1/8″ apart, in basically the seam allowance, then pull up the bobbin threads and start gathering. I’m sure everyone who has gathered has attempted this method. I have a few problems with this. First, you have to run it through the machine twice. *yawn* How boring. The next issue is that sometimes when sewing *ahem* Halloween costumes in the form of Belle from Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, the most “economical” satin might be used because its the only one in the right color. And costume satin is close to the word satan for a reason. Its nasty stuff, it unravels. I bet I could STILL find bits of it in my stash, it was everywhere! And when you gather, and have to work the fabric between your fingers, long strings of the stuff comes off in your hands.
Well…no more!
To gather with the serger, keep the differential feed on “0” or “N” and set the stitch length to the longest possible. On most machines this is a “4”. Serge on the edge of the fabric, leaving long tails.
When you are done with the previous step, you will need to find the needle threads, and only the needle threads. To do this quickly and easily, pull on the end of the chain so it unravels. The needle threads will always be the shortest two.
Grasp the needle threads and start scrunching the looper threads towards the fabric.
Continue scrunching like you are used to doing with the bobbin threads when doing standard gathering. Adjust just like you would normally do, then continue on with the pattern construction.
Isn’t that pretty? And easy? SO easy. And I like easy! And neat. With the loopers there, it contains your fabric so it doesn’t unravel or become unruly.
Because I don’t like unruly fabric.
All of my fabric is well behaved.
At least I tell myself that.
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