Elastic application question

Just a beginner question, but how do you keep elastic from twisting inside the casing when it is washed? I also don't know how the gather will stay evenly distributed. Should I be zig-zagging on the outside or something along those lines?

TIA Cookie

Reply to
Cookie
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To stop wide elastics twisting in the casing, once threaded and the gathers even, I sew down a seam or at strategic points round the waistband from the top towards the skirt. This also stops the elastic twisting.

Reply to
Kate Dicey

Thank you Kate. Would the same apply to a crib sheet?

Reply to
Cookie

Cookie,

For a fitted crib sheet, you are likely to have elastic all the way round, and a fairly narrow elastic at that (assuming crib = cot or moses basket or some type of baby bed at any rate!).

Here in the UK, all commercially purchased sheets of this type (in fact all fitted sheets for all sizes of bed) that I have seen have had the elastic directly applied, not cased. If I were to make that sort of sheet, I would apply directly with a Zig zag stitch.

If you have used a casing for this application, I wouldn't worry about the elastic twisting or the evenness of the gathers, assuming you have used a narrow elastic, as it will even out as the sheet is put on the matress.

HTH

Sarah (DD is now 6mths old! Where did that tiny baby go? And what happened to the time?!)

Reply to
Sarah Dale

I've done this method. Works great.

I made skirts with elastic bands for my mom when she was alive and I ran a seam (long stitch length) along both the top and bottom of the casing, going through the elastic. Worked really well, too.

-------------- You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough.=20

--Mae West=20

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Reply to
IMS

Yes, but I'd use a narrower elastic (1cm or less) and a 3 step zigzag to apply that. :)

Reply to
Kate Dicey

I had made all my previous crib sheets with the elastic directly applied. However, this time I thought it would look nicer with the elastic inside a casing. Turns out that it does look nicer cosmetically, however I didn't really get as nice a fit as I did with the others, plus it didn't take me any less time as I was completely unsure of what I was doing. I think I'll stick to the good old zig-zag method!

Thanks Sarah and everyone else who offered advice.

Reply to
Cookie

When twisted elastic bugs you, use cord elastic -- it's easier than flat elastic to put in because you tie the ends together instead of sewing them.

Mom didn't sew flat elastic either -- she used a little brass safety pin. But in her day, you'd expect to replace the elastic every year or so -- rubber had a much shorter shelf life than Lycra does. When I was a teenager, high-class underpants had buttonholes in the casings to make it easy to change the elastic. (They also had high-class elastic that didn't need changing!)

("Gold" safety pins are still a viable option for elastic in gifts: the recipient can fine-tune the tightness.)

Other options: put a header on the elastic (i.e., put it between two rows of stitching instead of inside a hem) so that there isn't any fold to help it get started. Make the casing fit snugly so that there isn't room to twist. Tack the elastic into place by various methods discussed elsewhere in the thread.

For a crib sheet, substituting a drawstring is a viable option -- this has the advantage of letting the sheet open flat for washing and storage, the disadvantage that you would have to tuck the ends of the string inside the sheet carefully to make sure the baby didn't find them. For a very small crib -- do they still call them bassinets? -- you can make a pillow slip to fit the mattress and do away with all strings and fastenings.

Don't sweat it; the gather tends to evenly-distribute itself. If it isn't even enough to suit you, stretch the casing and release it a few times.

One point of stitching elastic to the casing at strategic spots is to keep the gathers *un*evenly distributed. I stitch the elastic in a pull-over bra, for example, so that it will be gathered more in front than in back.

Joy Beeson

Reply to
Joy Beeson

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