Originally Posted by
craftycancer
ok so to fu yesterday's post; the ruffles for the quilt bag; I thank you all for the techniques you suggested; so I sewed the longest stitch and increased my tension, well I started to pull the bobbin stitch and at first the ruffles started to look great, then as a con't to pull the string it popped! whhhhyyyyyyyy? is the tension too tight? do I have strong Shrek hands? I was trying to be as gentle as I could; it can't be this difficult, this kept happening so i said I said I was goin to forget the ruffles but without them the quilt bag does not look as nice, so has anyone ever tried elastic thread? and do you have to hand wind it on your bobbin?
I love doing ruffles. But making the tension tighter is just the wrong thing to do. You want to make it looser. The top tension is easiest to change and change back when you are finished. toolazy #8, and drickman #15 have good instructions. I found that three rows of long stitches works well. Sew each about 1/8 inch apart so that the stitching line is under these gathering lines. Now pull on all three threads of the bobbin thread at the same time, twisting them together so that they act like one. Push the gathers over to the center and then start from the other side. If the three threads aren't pulling equally, pull back on the gathered portion until all threads are even again. Twist up the three threads again and continue until that portion is the correct length. Wind the gathering threads around a pin and do the other portions.
Now put your tension back where it belongs. Sew these gathers to your garment or purse or whatever so that the seam line is somewhere in the middle of the gathering stitching.
It is so much fun watching the beautiful gathers take shape.