Monday, December 17, 2007

Gathering using the overlocker/serger

I remembered while I should have been sleeping that I forgot to mention how I had gathered the ruffles on the aprons. I used the overlocker to quicken up the process.

This is a great way to gather large amounts of fabric using your overlocker. The picture above shows what happens after it goes through the needle.

Use these settings (or fiddle around to get what works best, or check your manual)

Stitch length 5
Needle thread tension 6 to 9
Upper looper tension 3 to 4
Lower looper tension 3 to 4

then serge away! Just keep a reasonable lengths (tails) of chain at the beginning and the end so that if you need to reduce the gathers you have enough thread so it does not unravel. Much faster than stitching 2 rows of basting stitches and pulling up.

In fact the gathering for all 6 aprons would not have taken more than 5 minutes! Got to love that!

7 comments:

toy said...

thanks for the tutorial, also, you apron below is beautiful!

Kitty Couture said...

Wow, Vicki, what a fantastic tip! Gathering can be tricky and time consuming. Thank you!

Tany said...

Great tip, Vicki! I'll remember this one!

Ann Made Studio said...

I laughed when I read "you remembered when you should have been sleeping".... I do this all the time, go over & over projects when I should be sleeping. However it appears to be a good time to plan & organize & remember:)
Thanks for remembering and posting, I've never tried gathering with my serger but will try this tip next time.Ann

BCN - UNIQUE designer patterns said...

Vicky .- Happy Christmas (I suppose there in the summer "antipodes"), happy new year and happy sewing, stitching to keep things so wonderful. Greetings from Spain and a big hug. Paco.

Barbara at Cat Fur Studio said...

Hey! Great point about using the overlocker to ruffle. I just had a 'duh' moment. (How many times have I struggled with the two rows of stitching, etc...) Thanks for the info.

Unknown said...

Thank you sooooo much. I was going nuts trying to gather two rows of stitching which kept breaking. I had to fiddle with the overlocker settings - your suggestions worked, the suggestions in the manual didn't! Thanks again