Michigan is finally beginning to show some signs of spring and we are so excited! With three girls, I am gearing up to make lots of spring and summer skirts. I love skirts for little girls—all of the advantages of shorts, but just a little fancier. Skirts are really easy to make and there are many patterns and tutorials out in Blog Land. Since so many of them are gathered in at least one place, I’d like to share some gathering techniques. This should be helpful for gathering lots of things, not just skirts.
A gathering stitch is a straight stitch set to the longest length on your sewing machine. After gathering and edge, typically that edge is sewn to something else like the ruffle in a skirt or dress.
You can also loosen your tension dial and it will gather for you as you sew, but it isn’t necessary and I tend not to use it often. The exception might be when you are running one row of stitching down the center of a strip of fabric so it will ruffle like ruffles on this dress: 
To run the gathering stitch, you can use one, two, or three threads to gather the fabric. Your stitching line is typically 5/8 of an inch in from the edge. To add a second stitching line, I start the second line about 1/4 inch closer to the edge. For three rows of gathering stitches, I space them about 1/8 apart.
HOW TO: To make the fabric gather, sew the gathering stitches along the edge of the fabric. Do not backstitch at the beginning or ending of the stitching. Gently pull the trailing threads from the top (wrong side) or the bottom (right side)–choose only one–of the fabric to slide the fabric along the threads and push it together into the gathers. The ends tend to be a little less gathered, but I just tighten those as I sew. You can also pull them gently and tie the loose threads into a knot to hold them in place.
SUGGESTION: I rarely sew a gathering stitch with one line of stitching except as I mentioned before—gathering down the center for ruffles. It tends to pucker and get lumpy otherwise. The telltale sign of clothing that uses only one row of gathering stitching is dresses and skirts that are poofy at the gathers.
EXPLANATION: Essentially, the gathers should lay fairly low in mostly even gathers especially close to the seam. Here is a super simple drawing to illustrate this (don’t laugh!). Both views are side views—don’t get tricked—and while the drawing seems like 2 acceptable styles, use your imagination…the gathers shouldn’t poof out at the seam. Left side, good. Right side, not good.
I generally gather with 2 rows of stitching because it is faster than 3 rows and looks almost as goos, but for the items I sell, I use three rows because it really looks better. Here’s an example. Row 1 has 1 row of stitching and you can see how it is a little lumpy. Row 2 has 2 rows of stitching and it looks pretty good. Row 3 has 3 rows of stitching and it also looks pretty good.
JOINING: To join your gathered edge fabric to the piece it will be sewn to, always line up the edges and put the non-gathered fabric on the bottom. This way, you can control how the gathered edge is going into the machine since it tries to move and pucker.
For one and two rows of gathering, you will sew as close to the 5/8 inch seam allowance gathering stitch or right on top of it. If you keep the needle just to the left of the gathering instead of the right, you won’t have to pick out any stray stitches on the other side that will show up just under the seam line.
For three rows of gathering stitches, you will notices a definite difference in the way it lays more flat than one or even two rows. I like to sew right between the center and left row of stitching. Then, I turn it over, press the seam flat and use a seam ripper to carefully remove the exposed row of gathering stitches.
When you gather this way, you are able to sew the two pieces of fabric together while the gathers are very flat and they will be much more even and flat when you are finished which is why I do it this way for clothing I sell. It is definitely worth the extra time it takes to remove the additional row of gathering stitches and, since they are long stitches, it is relatively easy to do. But, I admit, for regular stuff, I usually use two rows which is far better than one lumpy row.
WHAT’S YOUR VOTE?
I sewed as carefully as I could and tried to make each sample look as good as possible for this little test. Even still, I think the 2 and 3 rows of gathering stitches came out much better than the one row.
You can see that the 2 and 3 rows samples are pretty close, though.
Up close and personal—pay attention to the way the gathers look right up next to the seam especially:
Using one row of gathering stitches:
Using 2 rows of gathering stitches:
Using 3 rows of gathering stitches:
I hope this helps as you gather skirts, dress, ruffles and other stuff. When I was a little girl and my mom was sewing clothing for me, it was always really important that clothes didn’t look “homemade.” I don’t really know what the distinction was for me since my mom was really good and my clothes looked professionally made. Now, sewing your own clothing is popular and “homemade” is a badge of honor, but it should always represent professional craftsmanship not telltale signs of being sewn at home.
And, that is what I am always striving for (that and hoping my sewing is better than my drawing! {tee-hee})
I love the gathering tut I agree 3 looks better. What kind of fabric are you using on your skirts? I also live in MI and am itching to wear spring clothing. Your girls are going to look great this summer. Thanks or posting :)
Thanks for this!!! I am a novice sewer and have a few projects coming up I was considering ruffles for but I hadn't come across a tutorial that didn't confuse me! This totally made sense to me!
Not sure I'm ready to tackle it yet, but would this same basic concept work to make a dust ruffle for a bed?
Thanks for the great explanation. I can really see the difference! I just finished making a hat for my daughter that had A LOT of gathering stitches, and now I'm working on a second one for my youngest…I'm going to try your suggestions and test out the difference!
Ruffles were one of the first fancy techniques I learned – I love them. This reminded me of a skirt I want to make today, thank you!
Number 3 is gorgeous and really professional, but they all look nice.
And I hear you with the weather – I live in Minnesota! I want some warmth!!!
Oh this is really helpful…thanks for sharing…The three row stitching/gathering does give a really good finish!
They all look good, but you're right, 2 or 3 rows looks like the way to go. Thank you for this tutorial. I've been trying to learn this skill for awhile. Hopefully this helps!!
Thanks for your tutorial. I really enjoyed the info. for a beginner.
I like the 2 rows best. Thanks for the tips. I feel like I could try it on my own now.
Thanks for the tip about gathering! I'm new to sewing and just sew one row and I've been wondering why it looks different from some stuff I see online. Thanks again!
So pretty and I love the fabric! I linked this to my ruffles post too today – you did a great job!
Hello- just wanted to write a quick thank you. I am sewing an apron without using a pattern and I am not an experienced sewer and have no idea what I’m doing. I want a ruffle on the bottom and I could not find a tutorial that did not assume some prior knowledge regarding gathering stitches. Thank you so much for all the details- especially explaining what a gathering stitch even is. And now I know to use at least two rows! Would not have figured that out! Thanks again. :)