Inspiration How to Sew Gathers with a Serger Ruffling Foot
How to Sew Gathers with a Serger Ruffling Foot
The Baby Lock Serger Ruffling Foot is great because it takes what would be 5 steps on a regular machine and condenses it to just 1-2 steps. On a regular machine, in order to sew gathers you need to:
- Sew 2-3 rows of basting stitches
- Gather the fabric by hand
- Pin your fabric pieces together
- Sew the seam
- Finish the seam
With the Baby Lock Serger Ruffling Foot, I found that I only need to:
- Pin the fabric at notch points
- Feed it through my serger
Easy peasy, right?
Well, I should add that with any new technique or tool, it's important to remember that there is inevitably going to be a learning curve! I practiced a lot in order to understand how to maneuver my fabric with this foot. It took a while to get a hang of it, but totally worth the effort!
- Install the foot. Follow your machine’s manual for instructions on how to remove/install feet.
Note: Angelica is using the BLE-RF version with her Imagine. Find more information about the ruffling foot for most 4-thread sergers here. Own an 8-thread serger like the Accolade or Triumph? Check out BLE8-RF here.
- Change the differential feed to 2. In order to gather your fabric, you will need to change your differential feed to 2. By setting it to 2, this will result in a tighter gather. If you don’t need the gathers to be as tight, you can change it to a smaller number. Play around with it and test out various settings to get a feel for the amount of gathers you can achieve for the fabric you are using.
- Change the stitch width to 7.5 and stitch length to 4. By setting it to maximum width and stitch length, this will ensure that your gathers are secure and that there is enough space between stitches to allow for gathering.
- Place the fabric that will be gathered under the presser foot.
- With the main sides of your fabric together, insert the fabric that won’t be gathered into the slot and align with the fabric under the presser foot.
- Guide your fabric through and give the bottom fabric some “slack” by pushing it through.
The result should look like the photo below!
Helpful Tips and Troubleshooting the Serger Ruffling Foot
While getting the hang of using the ruffling foot, I ran into 3 issues. Here’s how to solve them! If working with a set measurement of fabric:
If you’re not working with a set measurement of fabric, you can just run a piece of fabric much longer than your top piece to make sure it covers the entire length, then cut the excess. But what if you are working with a set measurement of fabric, especially if using a pattern? Pin your fabric at the notches or at equal points throughout both pieces. This will help you monitor the progress of your gathers as your feed it through your machine. You will be able to catch whether or not your fabric is gathering too much or too little and adjust accordingly by using those reference points.
If you end up with excess gathered fabric or if your fabric is gathering at a rate slower than your top piece, give the fabric a bit more “slack” as you push it through in order to catch up. The tension of your bottom fabric as it goes under your presser foot should be loose.
If your fabric gathered too much
If you find fabric gathering at a rate faster than your top piece, release some of the slack as you guide it through your presser foot. You can also decrease the differential feed or start and end by sewing at neutral for about 1/2 to 1 inch at the beginning and end, then switching your differential feed to 2.
If you find fabric gathering at a rate faster than your top piece, release some of the slack as you guide it through your presser foot. You can also decrease the differential feed or start and end by sewing at neutral for about 1/2 to 1 inch at the beginning and end, then switching your differential feed to 2.
Test & Practice! As I mentioned before, learning how to use the Baby Lock Serger Ruffling Foot takes a lot of practice! If you’re sewing with a pattern, try cutting out a few sets of the pattern pieces that need gathering and test them first. You will eventually get an idea of how much or how little slack to give your fabric and whether or not you need to decrease your differential feed.
You can really achieve such beautiful gathers using this serger foot!
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