Gathering, pleating, tucking, ruffling, shirring…as I start to write this, I realize there are about five terms I can use here that all pretty much mean the same thing; I notice this often in sewing, especially when each sewing machine brand calls the same presser foot by a different name. So, let’s agree that these terms are interchangeable for the purpose of this article. What these terms all mean is to draw up fabric, in at least a 2:1 ratio to add fullness to fabric, usually as a decorative technique. Many methods can accomplish this, but the ones I’m going to talk about today are done via a ruffler or gathering foot.
The Gathering Foot works best on lightweight fabrics, anything from a sheer fabric to a medium weight cotton, like a quilting cotton. The uneven underside of the foot causes the fabric to pucker when sewn. By adding in adjustments on the sewing machine settings, you can control the gathering effect even more. You can even gather a ruffle and attach it to a flat piece of fabric in one go, saving even more time! The results are soft gathers. The lighter the fabric, the more it gathers. The heavier the fabric, the less it gathers.
A Ruffler looks complicated but it’s not at all. It is a series of lever and gears that move in time to the needle and it actually makes pleats to the fabric, creating a more uniform tailored look than simple gathers. A Ruffler also lets you control how often a pleat is formed and how deep each pleat is, this gives you even more choices and will work on heavier weight fabrics such as many used in home decorating.
I will refer once again to my blog entry on “Sibling Feet” as a Ruffler and Gathering Foot are siblings, very similar, but different, and it’s advantageous to have both as some fabrics and situations respond to one better than the other. Just like you need more than one Phillips screwdriver to tackle any Phillips head screw, you need more than one gathering attachment to tackle all gathering situations!
Like all of our presser feet, they come with complete detailed instructions that fully explain how to use them, no guessing and trying to figure it out on your own!
Other gathering methods include stitching over a cord to gather it, pulling up basting threads to gather and stitching over stretched elastic. These too have their merits, but for the fastest most consistent means to gather the Ruffler and the Gathering Foot are your two expert feet for gathering fabric!
