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Why does my shirring keep breaking?
If the problem is on the back of your shirring and seems to be just with the top thread (areas where the thread is too loose with loops of thread allowing the elastic to shift around OR if the top thread breaks when you stretch the fabric), you need to adjust your top tension.
What tension should I use for shirring?
With shirring, you will use a straight stitch with a slightly longer stitch length, and slightly increased tension. Depending on the type of fabric, I use 5-7 tension (out of 10) and a 3.5-4 stitch length (out of 5).
How can I improve my shirring?
To start, select the straight stitch on your machine and change the stitch length to a longer setting—around 3-4. When shirring, the fabric gathers between stitch links, so a longer stitch length creates more shirring whereas a shorter stitch length creates less. Wind the bobbin by hand with the elastic thread.
Why is my shirring elastic not gathering?
Make sure that your bobbin is not too full of the elastic thread. Try re-threading your whole machine. Make sure your elastic thread isn’t too tight or too loose on the bobbin. Make sure you didn’t mess with the tension (or any other settings) of your machine while adjusting your stitch length.
Is shirring easy?
It’s a quick and easy technique that’s really popular in women’s wear right now. Shirring with elastic is not to be confused with smocking, even though they look very similar. The elastic thread will evenly gather the fabric while creating stretch and texture.
What is shirring and how to do it?
Shirring is basically a decorative gathering but also has a very practical purpose as wearing a shirred clothing item like a skirt or a dress is super comfortable! It’s a great technique used as waistband on skirts, bodices on dresses or hems on shirts.
How do you Mark shirring on fabric?
Mark your lines on your fabric using chalk or a marking pen and a ruler. I like to leave a gap of 1/2″ to 1″ between the lines. The smaller the distance between these lines the tighter the shirring. Vice versa, the wider the distance the looser the shirring.
What do you need to make a shirr?
The secret to shirring is using elastic thread in the bobbin. The elastic thread will pull gather the fabric and create the false smocking look. So let’s look at what we need: Fabric you want to shirr. I recommend trying this technique for the first time on a scrap piece of fabric.
Is it easy to shirr fabric?
Shirred fabric looks so pretty and a little fancy and in spite of the bad reputation, shirring is easy and fun! In this tutorial you’ll learn how to shirr fabric with an easy, simple and fast method! While shirring has been around for ages, I don’t see that many items done using this cool technique!