ellastic waistband troubles

Posted by robb on October 27, 2009, 12:00 am

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elastic
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elastic
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1/4 "
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[trim]
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happens
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the same
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doesn't grow.
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the
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put the
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whom the
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cut it a
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because I wash
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gets
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casing than
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Thanks for the help/idea Joanne.
I have mixed luck with forming the casing part, me being an
amateur and all :)
i guess i just need more practice. It is for some kids H.
costumes and so i may save that for the winter wear.

thanks again
robb

Posted by FarmI on October 27, 2009, 12:12 am

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Why do you have trouble doing the casing? If you can do a hem you can do a
casing for a simple elastic waist.

Posted by robb on October 27, 2009, 2:40 pm

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you can do a
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exactly, the trouble... lack of patience to make them properly.
i am sure if i took the time and broke out the iron and fiddled
with the pinning and sewed slow etc... i could make a nice even
one when needed but this was just Halloween costume / dress up
box wear and i was looking for quick/simple not to dirty

I avoided the hem part by using an old orange t-shirt for this
costume pant/shorts. i cut the pattern so that the hem line
fell on the t-shirt's hem to avoid making the hem :}

robb

Posted by Kay Lancaster on October 25, 2009, 5:42 pm

Before giving up, stoke up the steam iron and hold it in the steam position
just barely off the fabric... moving it along. Then check the size.

Personally, I would have used a longer stitch length than you did, but that
shouldn't be causing that much trouble.

Kay

Posted by Juno B on October 25, 2009, 5:54 pm

Kay Lancaster wrote:
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Now that I've had my coffee and been up all day I can think clearly.
These are the directions I got from Sharon and sent to someone else. If
you don't have a serger just use your zz where it says to use a serger.HTH
Juno

These are the directions I got from Sharon Hayes. The only thing I do
different is to divide my skirt and elastic into eighths. I do that when
applying the elastic and when I sew the waist band down. I find I have
better control that way. I made 2 skirts this afternoon in about 45
minutes from the time I cut until I did my final trimming of threads.
I've done 4 skirts in the last 2 days. One other thing is that these
girls don't like a real hem. They like their skirts to have a 3 thread
hem done with woolly nylon. I use the same setting for the hem as for
seams.
HTH.

Here's what I do. I use 1" wide elastic. (I don't like any wider than
that; uncomfortable to me.) I cut the elastic 2" less than the waist
measurement. (However, if she has no hips and is an energetic little
monkey, you might want to cut that 3" less.) Then overlap the cut ends
about 1" and stitch (I use 3 step zig zag top and bottom of the lapped
portions) to form a circle. Now, use the lapped portion as the CB. Fold
the elastic to find the CF, and both sides. Mark those with pins.

I have used 3 threads and 4 threads to do this. Either seems to work fine so
however you have the serger set up will do. Disengage the blades. You
don't want to cut through the elastic. Also, you don't want the serger set
for a rolled edge. Turn your differential feed to the highest setting. On
mine, that's "2." I tend to think of that as "most scrunched" for the
bottom fabric. ;)

Turn the skirt wrong side out. Find the CF, CB, and both side seams of the
skirt. Line up the matching points from the elastic and slide the elastic
ring over the skirt. Pin those points. Trust me, you won't serge over
them, but you will need them to keep everything aligned. Pretty important
to keep the cut edge of the skirt aligned with the edge of the elastic too.

You will be serging with the right side of the fabric against the feed dogs.
Start at any one of your 4 points. Pull that pin, and slide that point
under the presser foot of the serger. Drop the presser foot down (this is
one of the few times I actually raise the presser foot before I start.)
Then set your needle(s) all the way down. Now you are going to stretch the
elastic taut between where you are starting and the next pinned point.
Only the elastic, not the fabric. Usually once you pull the elastic taut,
it stretches out to about the same as the fabric. Then just start serging.
You should be overcasting the fabric and the elastic. The differential
feed will scrunch the fabric down to the size of the elastic. When you get
close to the next pin, stop, pull the pin, grab the elastic at the next
pin, pull taut, start serging again. Keep going till you're back where you
started. ;)

Then I carry it back to my sewing machine. I fold the elastic down so it's
covered by the fabric on the inside of the waist. Then holding taut at
those same 4 points, and working with the right side of the fabric against
the feed dogs, I carefully stitch it down.

Now, here's the super sneaky tricky part that is essential. Go steam the
elastic. And I do mean STEAM. That allows the elastic to really snap back
to it's original length. But don't ever use old elastic that's been
sitting around a long time. It won't recover it's original length.
BTDT. :(

Once you get the hang of it, and it really is easy, this will go Fast! I
like this method a lot. Much faster than feeding through a casing. If any
of that doesn't make sense, let me know.
Juno

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ellastic waistband troubles - Page 2