{ Tips on Tuesday } Gathering

I don’t know about you, but I find it very annoying when I have to do a lot of gathering.

Pattern instructions often say to stitch two rows of a loose stitch and then pull the bobbin thread to make a nice bit of gathering.

You know me, I am always looking for a way to cut corners so I never stitch TWO rows of loose stitches and then inevitably as I’m gathering I break the thread . . . AAHH!

Here is a wonderful tip that was passed on to me and it works beautifully every time!!

Set your machine to a loose zig zag stitch and then zig zag over embroidery floss, or light cording, even a heavy thread would work.

Then the zig zag stitch will easily gather as you pull the heavy thread beneath.

Beautifully gathered with no broken stitches and even saved time because you only had to stitch once . . . I love it!

Try it and let me know what you think . . . I’d love to hear from you.