Friday Fun Fact: Beautiful Gathers!

It's Elizabeth here to tell you about my favorite way to sew perfect gathers!

Gathering is crucial for cute ruffles, but it's also a great technique for making skirts 

First, it helps to have a different color in the bobbin and the spool. In the sample below, I used yellow and grey.

Lengthen your stitch length to the highest setting.

Stitch two parallel rows on either side of the seamline. So if your seam allowance is 5/8", sew at 1/2" and 3/4".

Don't backstitch, and don't cut the thread tails. Seriously, leave the starting and ending tails LONG!

Grab one set of threads and gently pull to create the gathers! Spread them out evenly to the adjoining piece and pin the hell out of it.

Finally, sew at the seamline, right between the gathering stitches! You can remove the loose gathering threads later.

There are a lot of ways to create gathers in fabric, but I find that this method really gives you the nicest look. Sewing in between the two rows creates perfect, tiny ripples that lay smoothly and evenly.