Tempus' Sewing & Garb Accessories Weeb Site:
	Gathering Fabric

Now a good way to find the centers is to start with the two ends sewn together for an inch or two, be shure that they are the same length. Then put the ends of those semms toghere so the collar is folded in half on top and the cloak is foldded in half below, forming a sort of cross. Since you have folded them in half the folds are at the center of each. now let go the ends and bring the centers together one on top of the other, and pin them together. IF the fabric you are using is very thik a perpendicular seam by machine may be better, another handy hit is do your gathering onto a length of twill tap (not bias) the tap will not strech and give it more strength when you are done. So where you used to have one loop of the two peices of fabric, you now have two loops. treet each of thes loops like the first. find the cener of both parts and pin them together. Then you have four, repeat and you wil have 8,16,32,64,128 etc. stop when you have enough to suit you or it fits. if you want box pleats just push the pleats strait down and sew in place, for knife pleats push them over to the side you want them to go.

I find it is best to machine sew the outer layer of the colar and then by hand tak the iner collar so it crosses the seam then I "stich in the ditch" to finish the collar. To "stich in the ditch" you machine stich in the seam from on the other side taking advantage of the fold and the bulk to hide the finised seam.

For a gathered gored skirts or cloak. this method will give great results. I used it once on a gathered gored skirt, four circles, I gathered 300 inches into a 36 inch waist and this skirt is beautiful, it only has a 900 inch hem.

		© Ragnar Torfason 2006 March 28