Using Serger Gather foot instead of basting step for ruffles

Anyone have suggestions for how to convert patterns when using your gathering foot on the serger?

I have just discovered the ease of ruffles when using the gathering foot on my Brother 1034D serger. I would like to use this method of gathering in making the Pink Fig Nie Nie skirt which is six ruffles.

The serger will attach the ruffles to the ruffle attachment. What I am struggling with is trying to figure out how to adjust the ruffling to match up to the length of the ruffle attachment. When ruffling via the basting method, you just manually adjust your ruffles until they match the attachment length. Since the ruffling happens simultaneously, I can't quite get the lengths to match up. I've tried to do some test ruffles for example, if I start with 10 inches of fabric for both the ruffle and attachment and use 7 as the tension for both my needles, I get about 5.5 inches of ruffle, 4.5 hang of ruffle attachment.

I am stuck and feel like I might be making this harder than it is.  Thoughts?

This is a hard question. I know many seamstresses who have gathering feet for their sewing machines and sergers costing $100's, but because it's so hard to figure out, they never use it. Instead, they choose to do it by hand.
 
I tried to calibrate my gathering foot, but still have a hard time. I used this great book to try and figure it all out: https://www.youcanmakethis.com/info/featured-products/free-the-ruffler-unruffled.htm

It's a free download and is worth the read. Good Luck!

this is a great question because i am ALWAYS guessing with my ruffler on my regular sewing machine. who knew there was so much math in sewing..

i have another question for you. i have the same serger as you, which i really like. i didnt know they had a ruffler for the serger. is it an actual ruffler or a gathering foot? where did you get it?

I have a new janome but not sure what/which is the gathering foot!
I have a zipper foot,the regular one & one for making buttonholes................gathering foot must be a different one altogether?

Even though this is old, I found it when I was searching for help on using my ruffler foot to make this skirt!  What I did was ruffle the strips BEFORE I sewed them together.  I still had to run a basting stitch, but it greatly reduced the bulk and time in ruffling.  It was minimal.  I just wanted to add to this incase anyone else finds their way here!  I set my ruffler to every 6 stitches for the entire Nie Nie skirt pattern. 

I have a ruffling foot for my machine.  It took some trial and error for me to find how much fabric that I would need for for the gathering.  I wished that I remembered how I got to this point.  Since I did the work, I love my tool and do not want to go back to the hand method. 

I gather, then sew it on the garment, for the most part.  I do understand that you can gather and sew in one step, but I prefer the feeling of control I have when I gather as much as I want, then sew the ruffle on the flat fabric.  Doing it this way helps prevent that over and under the stitichline gather that I've gotten after multiple washings and dryings of a finished item...

sarah

Thank you for that tip!  That will work much better for me on the blouse I am making (rather than sewing both layers at the same time).

SueC56

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