Gathering fabric is a form of fabric suppression that is often used in garment making, and it is applied in several areas, from the sleeve cap to bust areas and more.
Today I’m going to share with you the easy way to gather fabric evenly, so that you can have beautiful gathered results every time.
What You’ll Need To Gather Fabric Evenly
You won’t need any fancy sewing machine presser feet to gather fabric, just the usual sewing basics:
- Sewing machine
- Standard presser foot
- A pin
- Your hands
Don’t forget the fabric you want to gather and lets get started!
Step 1: The First Stitched Line
Start by placing your chosen piece of fabric under the sewing machine presser foot with a small seam allowance. I aim for less than 0.5cm, but the easiest way to keep this consistent is to use the inside edge of your presser foot.
Make sure that your stitch length is the longest possible that your machine can provide. Mine is set at no.5 on my Bernina 1008.
Leave long tails at the start and then sew the entire length of the fabric that you want to gather.
Do not backstitch at the beginning or the end of your stitch line!
When you’ve sewn your first line, remove it from the sewing machine, cutting the thread so that it is at least 5cm / 2″ in length minimum.
Step 2: The Second Stitched Line
Not everyone goes this extra step of sewing a second line of stitching, but doing so makes for a more even and neater gather to your fabric.
I again use my presser foot as a guide, only this time I’m going with the outer edge.
Keep the stitch length the same as before, leave a long thread tail and sew along the entire length of fabric.
Remember, we’re not back-tacking at the start or end!
Remove from the sewing machine, and it’s now time to gather that fabric!
Step 3: Gathering The Fabric
The method I use to gather the fabric makes it really easy.
Start by pulling the two bobbin threads through to the right side of the fabric. I gently tweak the upper threads and then use a pin to cajole the bobbin threads up.
Hold the upper threads gently against the fabric with your less dominant hand, and then take the bobbin threads in you dominant hand.
You can now ease the fabric along the thread, gathering it up as you go.
Do this slowly and steadily, so as not to snap the threads and see all your gathered fabric unravel in front of you.
Make sure you do not over gather the fabric – you should have in mind how long the gathered section needs to be and measure as you go, then pin to secure it in place like I have below.
Finally, you can secure it with a line of stitching to the area your gathering was intended for, and then press. I press the seam allowance away from the gathers as can be seen in the photos below.
When Is Fabric Gathered?
As mentioned at the beginning of this article, fabric is gathered in several areas when sewing clothing:
- Around the cap of the sleeve between the front and back notches, to ‘ease’ the fabric into the smaller armhole.
- As a way to suppress fabric that would otherwise be a bust dart. The dart is manipulated into position and then the fabric is gathered instead of sewing it into a dart, creating gentle gathered fullness instead.
- Along the waistline to suppress larger lengths of fabric to match the intended waist measurement.
- Along the back and front yokes of some shirt and blouse styles to add volume to the bodice section.
Will you be trying out the gathering stitch on your next project?