I need some help with ruching, please!

[Allie2]

I wound the elastic around the bobbin tightly, turned my tension to the highest setting and sewed. The lines are gathering but not very tightly. What am I doing wrong?? TIA

[Wendy~]

I'm assuming you are doing shirring?? You are probably not doing anything wrong. Have you lengthened your stitch a bit? That helped me. Also, when I did mine I didn't think it was gathering well. Then I steamed it with my iron and voila! It gathered up right before my eyes! Hope that helps!

[Allie2]

I did mean shirring. I never even thought to steam the elastic. The simplest things, right?? How long should I make my stitch? I'm sewing on a 3 right now.

Thanks.

[Wendy~]

My machine doesn't have numbers for the stitch length. But I just make it a little longer than "normal", does that make sense? Really the steaming is what was the "ah ha!" moment for me

[Allie2]

Thanks! I'll fiddle with it and hopefully I'll magically get the gather I want.