This is the tutorial that will change your life! I love gathering, and it’s so satisfying when you have a good result. Check out this post from Stefanie from Girl. Inspired. It’s going to give you perfect results, and then you won’t skip the patterns with all the ruffles.
I like a lot of ruffling to accompany “my style.” And while it may be old hat to many of you, gathering and stitching fabric can be an intimidating process for others. I’m going to show you the process of gathering a skirt to join it to a bodice that will give you the cleanest results with (hopefully!) the least amount of frustration and/or mess. The trick is this: sew two lines of gathering stitches, press and steam your gathers, and pin a lot!! Incorporate those three things and you’ll be good! Ready?
So, you’ve got your skirt pieces ready to attach to the bodice. First, you’ll sew two parallel rows of long (gathering) stitches around the top of the skirt.
Now, mark the center front and center back on your skirt and your bodice, and pin the two together, right sides facing, with your skirt piece facing out (so you have easy access to those bobbin threads and you can see the gathers while you’re working) Four pins total – front center, back center, side, and side. Now, start pulling your bobbin threads. Work on one section at a time. Press your gathers and shoot them with some steam while you’re working. You’ll see how this helps you to gather the fabric without it folding down and without the gathers overlapping.
Now, pin the gathered skirt to the bodice. The more pins that you use, the more even your gathers will stay when you sew the pieces together. Add more steam as needed to make sure that all the gathers are lined up nicely. Then, you’re ready to stitch the bodice to the skirt. Line up your needle so that you can stitch directly in the center of your two rows of gathering stitches. You’ll see how the two rows of stitches hold everything in place. Go slow and make sure that your gathers stay even and then your raw edges stay aligned.
When you have stitched all the way around, pull out all the pins, then remove both sets of gathering stitches.
Serge around the raw edge if you wish.
Now, press your dress open (press the seam up toward the bodice) and admire your perfectly gathered skirt! I like to finish the dress off by top stitching around the base of the bodice (not shown).
Use this gathering technique for perfect ruffles added to anything! It’s not necessarily limited to attaching a gathered skirt to bodice.
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