4.12.09

Tip for gathering tulle


I discovered a neat, little trick for gathering tulle the other day.  It starts with zig-zagging over dental floss.  I positioned the dental floss in the loop of my narrow-hemming foot to keep it centred as I was sewing.  I used a fairly wide zig-zag, so as not to get the dental floss caught.  Then, because I knew I was short of dental floss, I kept the floss under tension.  This had the added bonus of gathering the tulle evenly as I went, saving the tedious hand gathering step.  You can see it gathering behind the foot in the photo above.  Pull the floss tighter to increase the gathering.  The amount of gathering can still be adjusted after you have finished, as long as you have not cut the floss off too short.

6 comments:

Colette said...

great tip. Will try that one.

Anonymous said...

Great tip!! I wanted to make a tulle ruffle at the bottom of my holiday dress but wasn't sure how to do it! This is so helpful.

meli88a said...

I have done this too, it's a great way to do it.... for Halloween I made a costume with yards and yards of tulle, which ended up smelling minty fresh with all that mint-scented floss I was using!

Dana said...

Love that tip!

Louise said...

What a brilliant idea just sewing a frill on the bottom of my Christmas dress so will give this a go

Destiny Hunt said...

Thank you so much for this tip! It worked like a dream for me when I was making a gathered tulle underskirt for a poodle skirt costume for my granddaughter. I was having a heck of a time zigzagging over a cord while trying to keep a straight edge along the tulle, but between using crepe paper backing for the tulle and this neat little trick, it was so easy! And now I know my narrow hemming foot can double as a cording foot (which I don't have), at least for a single cord. Again, thanks so much, this tip made all the difference.
--Destiny