I used to hate makin ruffles with those horrible long rows of gathering stitches..... but recently I came across an easy method that works quite well. To do it, set your machine up for long basting stitches with no back tack stitching or knots at the beginning or end. Tighten the tension on the machine as high as it will go and and stitch along one edge of the fabric within the seam allowance. It’s that easy - with the high tension setting the machine will gather it up for you. Two hints, make a note of the original tension setting before you change it so it’s easy to reset your machine; leave very long thread tails in case the gathering is too tight and needs to be loosened.