November 19, 2020

How to achieve beautiful gathers using a machine?

What could be prettier than the movement of a beautiful, flowing, gathered fabric?!

To achieve beautiful gathers, here's how to do it! Whatever the piece of your sewing pattern that you want to gather, the method is always the same.

Here, I show you how to make the gathers on the bottom of the bust ofthe long Sonia dress .

The video tutorial

Step 1: Set up the machine

Changing your machine settings for your straight stitch
Loosen the thread tension and increase the stitch length.
Take a sample of fabric and sew about 5 cm
Lift the needle without cutting the thread , pull to have a good length of thread, keep the length as it is then cut

Step 2: Sew the threads onto the garment

Sew 2 gathering threads on the right side of the garment and inside the seam allowance so as not to exceed 1 cm from the edge

Start from the first notch which marks the start of the gather and sew along the entire length (without forward/backward stitching at the start and end of the seam)
At the end of the seam, lift the needle and pull a good length of thread, removing the work from under the presser foot.
Pin the 2nd length of gathering thread
Once you have reached the end of your gathered thread length, lift the needle and pull a good length of thread, removing the work from under the presser foot.

Reset the settings to resume sewing using the straight stitch

Step 3: Pull the gathering threads

Gathering threads are sewn on the right side of the garment: threads that start from the needle on the top and threads that start from the bobbin on the underside of the garment.

Come and pull on the bobbin threads (pulling on the top threads will cause a blockage and the gathers will not be done properly)

Step 4: Pleat with your fingers

Gather to distribute the gathers evenly over the entire length which will then be assembled

Step 5: Sew

In the video, the gathers are made on a lower bust which will be assembled with a skirt.

Pin according to the marks, here the middle of the bust and the middle of the skirt.
Pin from the guide notches that mark the start of the gathered area and that meet a guide notch that is on the skirt along the entire length of the garment, ending with the area to be gathered.
Distribute the gathers to be the right size for the fabric on which it will be assembled.
Once the dimension is well established, pin while holding the gathers in place.
Sew the piece and once on the gathered area, do not hesitate to leave the needles in place to maintain the direction of the gathers. Otherwise, drastically slow down the speed of the stitching and model well with your fingers.