/cgl/ - Cosplay & EGL

>>8608564

First, the fabric thickness affects the ratio of gathering you can do to a fabric. A very thin, open weave fabric like gauze or organza can be gathered as much as 7 to 1, quilting cotton can usually do 3 to 1, but there are really thick cotton out there where it's impossible to gather even 3 to 1. Go for a lighter weight fabric if you really have problems gathering anything and see if that solves it.

As a last resort, if I really need a lot of fabric gathered, instead of actually gathering the fabric, I do mini pleats. So instead of putting pins in between gathers of fabric, I manually fold a little pinch of fabric over, and pin it down. This method uses up a lot of pins, as every "gather" is pleated down seperately, and is very time-consuming as you need to make individual pleats across the whole length, which is why it's my last resort. However, the fabric will definitely not shift while being sewn down, and if you need to do something like gather 5-6 x fabric, you can do double pleats and pin them in place. Don't press the pleats in place, make the pleats a little uneven, and it will look gathered when you're done sewing.

Pic is a doll dress, but you can see the individual pleats with their own pins. After sewing, it looks exactly like the skirt was gathered. (I never use this for human clothes, too time-consuming)