question about stitches on my sewing machine

[Danesmama]

I have been reading a lot of posts here and looking at the website links for sewing diapers, and I was hoping you ladies could help clarify something for me. Now for a lot of you this will be a stupid question, but here goes. . .

What is a 3-step zig-zag stitch?

I have a zig zag stitch that I can choose "stretch" for the length and the machine sews more than one strand for the zigs and zags. Or I have a stitch that looks like the machine makes individual straight stitches for the zigs and zags. I am having problems getting my elastic to bunch up properly and wondered if my stitch was wrong.

Does anyone else have a machine with the "stretch" stitch? Is this what I should be using for my elastic, or should I use a regular stitch with a regular length.

TIA!

[boscopup]

It's not the stretch stitch. It's probably the second one you mention. It looks like 3 straight stitches at an angle to do the zig, then 3 straight stitches at an angle to do the zag. So you get a big zig-zag pattern with 3 stitches on each zig and zag. In my manual, it's called a "multi-zig-zag".

And not a stupid question at all! It was at least a month before I figured out which stitch it was on my machine.

For the 3-step zig-zag, I usually set the width to 4 and length to 2.5. That seems to work well for me. A regular zig-zag and straight stitch work too.

What fabrics are you going through and what type/size of elastic are you using? And what stitch width/length are you using?

[Danesmama]

I am trying to sew some pre-fitteds and felted wool covers with swimsuit elastic that I got from one stop diaper shop. I feel like I stretch the heck out of the elastic, but it doesn't seem to bunch up as well as I'd like. It may be that I was using the "stretch" zig zag stitch. Thanks for the clarification - I'll try the real 3-step zig zag next time!

[boscopup]

Yeah, when I tried some of those stretch stitches (including one that the manual said to use for elastic), it didn't work well at all!