any joy with gathering foot ?

It's definitly a bad sine...

You need a co-sine-r.

Oh, now you've gone off on a tangent.

I'm trying not to be obtuse.

That's very acute of you....

One day I'll get the angle on this...

you have

that are

fun to

perfectly

Thanks Joanne,

You called it ! That ruffler worked better than my gathering feet and much more consistent.

I dug up one of my low shank duel level vintage rufflers and installed it on the pfaff (with some slight mods/tweaks) and ran some tests and it worked great.

For those interested parties here is a link to some photos of my gathering by ruffler test and setup

few tweaks of stitch length and to the ruffler adjustment and iwas able to run off a seam on my yoke to gathered skirt project. thanks for the idea.

robb

Thanks for reporting back, Robb. I thought it would work - I haven't done it for years, but when I did, I was pleased with the results and the ease of doing a rather complicated task. Frankly, I just hate all that pulling threads the other way.

Lot's of reflex responses here.

Lizzy

Well, we're an eclectic group... Come from all points of the compas. ;)

Well done! You have the advantage of me, I've tried using the ruffler foot several times, used much hot air, exasperation and not a little bad language but I've never been able to get a satisfactory finish!

:-)

gather foot

stright

turns the

either turn

doesn't seem

Thanks for help Jon,

I had tried the various changes you prescribed with my gathering foot... the problem was consistency. I could get a 1/2 inch of good small gathers then none for a stretch or a pleat or the gathers would get gathered on themselves. So, over a 5" inch stretch of gathers the results were not so good..

i would not be surprised if some machines made better gathering foot gather than others. Maybe with more patience and time i could figure out how to *coax* my setup to work or perhaps you just have a machine and foot that works better than mine ?

thanks again,

robb

Thnks for the help Beverly,

I appreciate the instructions. I think i am going to paste these instructions over the instructions in my Readers Digest complete guide :)

this part would help my manual gathering. i was trying to make gathers then pin it all to the flat part.

I think if i used as many pins as *i* would need i would go buy another box... or two. My last manual gathering attempts looked more like pin cushions than sewing project.

I'm sewing the top edge of a folded and gathered tulle> ruffle for a petticoat to the taffeta base, but you can see> how the gathers are smooth, and sewing them down is no> problem.>

Yes, that was the first thing i noticed in the photo was how evenly gathered that long stretch was and also how few pins were used. I have been using alot more pins.

Thanks again for the instructions Beverly you make it sound and look easy.

robb

Possibly, I have a Janome 9700 and Hew Home (Janome) 205. Maybe its just the Janome machines, but I just got done making ten (10!) adult choir surplices with gathering, adapting McCalls 5640 into 4 sizes with long sleeves. The gathering part was the easiest. I hate doing Raglan sleeves, always seems like I need several tries to get it right.

Jon

Maybe its just

choir

with long

Raglan sleeves,

I am not familiar with the Janome machines.

I am usng an older pfaff which suits me but some of the presser feet (eg. gathering, applique, piping/welt ) do not work so well. An example is i find the zipper foot works better for making piping

The gathering i was trying was made diffcult (besides the foot) by a 5" center section of yoke to attach the gathered skirt to with about 2" of non gathering on either side. The skirt had 10 inches to be gathered into the 5 " span and with the same 2" of non-gathering to match the yoke.

I went to look at the pattern and i had transposed your numbers to 5460 :) i was thinking that would be a very interestingly stylish and young choir.

robb

;-) As I have said before, there are quick-and-dirty ways for doing things, but that may or may not produce the finest result.

I have no problem using tools in sewing, after all I use a sewing machine, an embroidery machine, a serger, a coverstitch machine, a press, etc. But sometimes superior results can be obtained by using superior *methods*.

I think pattern instructions often say to do that, I found out a long time ago by trial and error that it *does not work*.

I use lots of pins I buy them at TSWLTH on 40% off coupons. Although I manage to retrieve some of the ones which fall to the floor, using a magnetic pin-picker-upper, I do go through at least one box of pins every year.

> I'm sewing the top edge of a folded and gathered tulle> > ruffle for a petticoat to the taffeta base, but you can> > see> > how the gathers are smooth, and sewing them down is no> > problem.

In that project, gathering tulle to taffeta, I used a pin about every 4 inches. Sometimes it take more, sometimes less. I use as many as necessary to keep everything under control.

You're welcome, Robb. In my opinion doing gathers this way is easy, but it probably takes some practice. I've been doing it this way for 55+ years.... ;-}

Beverly

That is exactly the sort of construction detail which would be better served by using the method I described. If you are not gathering an entire length, you simply secure the first pin where the ungathered section ends, and then start the gathering from there toward the center.

ROTFLOL! Interesting, certainly.

Beverly

I usually mark the matching points, gather the fabric up shorter than it is supposed to be, pin the matching points with right-angle pins, stretch the gathers to fit, do the figure-8 bit if necessary (I use doubled cotton thread in the bobbin, so it doesn't slip much), arrange the gathers -- stroking back and forth with a fingernail tends to even them, as does stretching them parallel to the wrinkles -- use right-angle pins as required to make things stay put, turn the work over, put in in-line pins, removing each right-angle pin as its duty is taken up by pins on this side, then sew with the gathers down, removing pins as I stitch up to their points.

See what happens when you buy the beta version? You get stuck with an obsolete tuit type. Now, when you go to replace those tuits, you are going to have to pay more and look harder to find them. *sigh* I really hate when that happens.........

Sharon