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Tutorial: Cord gathering

Here is a little sewing tutorial to make your costuming easier. Cord gathering is a method for gathering huge amounts of fabric without pleating it. It is also fantastically easy, especially compared to modern ‘pulled thread’ gathering, so is wonderful for any project where you want to gather a huge amount of fabric.

I’ve seen a similar technique used on one 1900s petticoat, but have no other evidence to suggest this is a historically correct technique for any other timeperiod – I simply use it as an awesome timesaving hack for non-historically accurate costuming.

I used it for the ruffles at the bottom of my hoopskirt petticoat, and for the tiers of ruffles on the 1850s raspberry paisley dress.

Note: for this tutorial height goes up and down in relation to the body, and width goes around the body, so all descriptions are given in height x width

You will need:

a piece of narrow cord 6″ longer than you want the finished gathered width to be. You can using piping cord, or the cheap stuff you buy at the hardware store, but be sure it is cotton or hemp or another natural fibre. You can also use strong thread, but it’s much easier to do this technique if your thread/cord is thick enough that you can feel the ridge of it through your folded-over fabric to be.
Your length of fabric for gathering, hemmed on one edge, and at least 1″ higher than you want the finished length to be. The width will depend on how gathered you want the fabric to be. 2-4x as long is standard for ruffles, but if you are gathering in the waistband of a huge 186s skirt, you will be gathering as much as 6-8x the finished width.

For example, for my hoopskirt petticoat my cord lengths were both 166″ long, because my petticoat is 160 wide, and my un-gathered ruffle pieces were 320″ long (2x as long as the hem) and 5″ high, hemmed.

For my tiered skirt, my three cord lengths were each 188″ long, the width of the skirt (182″) + 6″, but the ruffle lengths were 200″, 220″, and 240″, respectively, because Arnold’s pattern calls for the tiers to be more ruffled as they go down the skirt.

The Sewing Tutorial:

Step 1:

On the wrong side of the fabric, fold over the extra 1″ or so of fabric on the un-hemmed height edge. Measure the fabric to make sure it is exactly the height you want , and press and pin (if necessary) the fold. The cord will slip into the fold that you have just created.

Step 2:

Tie a knot at one end of your cord length. Lay the cord in the fold/channel you have created in your fabric (depending on the length of the fabric, cord, you may need to pin it in, or may only be able to insert part of it and will need to continue to lay the cord in the channel as you go). Using your piping foot or invisible zipper foot, stitch slightly to left of the cord, sealing the cord in the crease of the fabric.

Be careful not to sew the cord at any point! If you do you will be unable to pull and gather it!

The cord in the channel

Sewing just the left of the cord.

You don’t want your channel to be too tight as that will make it hard for you to pull and gather.

Step 3:

As you sew, stop every once in a while and tug on the cord, to gather the fabric behind the needle on to the cord. The more fabric you are gathering on to the cord, the more often you will need to pull the cord forward and gather the sewn fabric.

Gathered fabric behind the needle, pulling the cord in front of the needle.

Pulling and gathering.

Step 4:

Gather as you sew until all the fabric is sewn and gathered on to the cord. Measure and adjust the gathers to make sure the fabric is exactly as wide as you need it to be, and then tie off the cord to secure both ends of the gathers.

Step 5:

Sew both ends of the gathered ruffle/fabric together, if needed, and then pin your gathered fabric to your waistband/skirt/petticoat etc., and sew it down. I find that the cords don’t create much additional bulk, so they can be left in the finished project, and the ironed top edge is tidy enough to be visible on the outside of a garment (which is not the case with pulled thread gathering)

Sewing my gathered tier to my 1850s paisley skirt base.

Here is what the finished result looks like:

Easy peasy! And no chance of your gathering threads breaking, and so much easier on your fingers and wrists for pulling and gathering!

Hope you enjoyed this sewing tutorial!

For another way to gather huge amounts of fabric with cord, check out my other sewing tutorial on how to do zig-zag cord gathering:

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Felicity the sewing cat thedreamstress.com

The adventures of Felicity: how Felicity came to stay with us

Published by The Dreamstress

I wanted a cat from the moment Mr Dreamy and I got married and moved to New Zealand, but he dragged his heels for over a year. He pointed out how expensive and how much work it would be, how it would make it hard to find a new flat if we needed to move, how it would make it hard to go on vacation etc, etc.

But I persisted, and with a little help from my wonderful mother in law (she told us point blank that we needed to do two things in 2007 – get a cat and get a car!) Mr Dreamy finally agreed to go cat hunting in February of 2007.

I knew what kind of cat I wanted: a female with a lot of personality. An active, inquisitive, people focused cat that wouldn’t mind being an only cat. I was willing to get a male if needed, but the personality was a must. We had a preference for a kitten, and for a short-haired cat, but neither of these were deal-breakers

You would think that finding a cat would be easy. Aren’t the shelters supposed to be swarming with cats and kittens in need of adoption? Aren’t the SPCA supposed to be thrilled when a young married couple with a disposable income and a huge yard that is far, far away from any road show up wanting a cat to love and dote on?

Apparently not. I called and called and called the SPCA, and just got their answering machine, which was so full of messages that I couldn’t leave one.

Finally, after a week I got ahold of a person and asked about coming to look at their cats and kittens and they heard my accent, said “Oh, you can’t adopt a cat, you need to be a New Zealand resident” and hung up on me.

(Insert shocked emoticon here)

Now, I understand that there have been problems with university students from overseas adopting an animal while they were here in NZ, and then abandoning it when they left, but they didn’t even ask if I was a resident or give me a chance to explain, which I thought was very, very rude!

I immediately called back and explained that my husband was a NZ citizen, I was a resident, and there shouldn’t be any problem in my adopting a cat. I asked to make an appointment to see their cats and they said “Oh, we are too busy right now. It will be weeks or months before we could consider you.” At which point I got fed up and said thank you in my politest but frostiest voice, and hung up. My mood did not improve when I saw the SPCA’s “adopt an animal today!” ad in the next day’s newspaper.

So then I went looking for other places to adopt a cat from, and found the Wellington Cat Protection League. Yes, that really exists. And it is really named that. They said they had lots of kittens and cats, and to come visit at one of their members homes next Saturday.

So Saturday we showed up, and met a real, honest to goodness cat lady. She had 17 of her own cats, and was fostering another 11 kittens from 3 different batches at the time. Unfortunately, all the kittens were too young to adopt out, and we wouldn’t even be allowed to put dibs on one of them until they were. I’m not sure why they had us come visit at all!

At this point Mr Dreamy and I were getting slightly fed up, and slightly desperate. Then someone at work told me that she knew a vet out in the Hutt (the Hutt is to Wellington as Oakland or San Jose is to SF. Or like New Jersey is to NYC. Once you live in the city you are appaulled by the idea that you should have to drive out that far to hicksville to source something) who had kittens that needed adopting.

So we called the vet, and, miracle of miracles, they sounded nice and cheerful and normal, and were thrilled that we wanted to come visit and meet the two kittens they had.

So that Saturday we drove out to the Hutt, which Wellingtonian’s may consider a cultural wasteland, but which is extremely pretty. And it was closed! There was a sign on the door saying that due to an emergency they had had to shut for the day.

Grrrrrrrr….

But we were persistent, so the next Saturday we drove out to the Hutt again, and the vets were delighted to see us, and once they had cleared two dogs out of the waiting room they brought out two darling, adorable little kittens to meet us.

One of them was a 6 week old sleek little white male, utterly gorgeous. And the other was a tiny four week old fluff of pastel calico. The two of them gamboled about our feet, and I picked up the male kitten and tried to cuddle him, but he struggled to get back down and play with his friend. So I put him down and picked up the little girl, and she cuddled right in to me and tried to chew on my fingers and batted at my face.

And I fell in love right then and there.

The vets were thrilled to bits. The little fluffball I wanted had lost her mother when very young and had been hand-raised by people. She and the white kitten were alone together all night at the vet clinic, so it would be fantastic if she could go home and live with someone full time. Usually they couldn’t adopt cats until they were at least 8 weeks old, but in her case it would be good if she got a home right away.

I was bouncing up and down, hoping that we could take her home that day. And that’s when the vets told me that if I had picked the male I could have taken him right away, but the female technically belonged to the Hutt SPCA, and I was going to have to ask them if I could have her.

Grrrrrrrr….

The vets said they would call the SPCA and explain they had found a home for the kitten, and we could expect a call from the SPCA in the next day or two to confirm details. We filled out a form, Mr Dreamy took a picture of me with the darling, adorable ball of fluff and wonder, and we went home to wait.

And we waited, and waited. Nothing on Sunday, or Monday, or Tuesday, or Wednesday, or Thursday!

On Friday I got desperate and called the SPCA myself. The lady who answered said “Oh, we looked at your paperwork and saw that you both work, and we don’t want the kitten to spend time alone because she is so young, so you can’t have her.”

As patiently as I could I explained that Mr Dreamy and I had been saving up leave so that we could spend lots of time with our new pet as they adjusted, and surely it was better for her to live in a home with us than to be alone every night an all weekend in the vet clinic?

To which the lady responded “Oh, we noticed that you live in Wellington as well, and we assume you will not be willing to drive back to the Hutt to get her fixed when she is old enough, so you can’t have her.”

So I had to explain that if we were willing to take multiple trips to the Hutt to find her and meet her, surely we would also be willing to bring her back to be fixed?

So the lady finally conceded that we might be able to have her, she would have to check with the vets again.

So I rushed and called the vet clinic back and pleaded my case, and lovely, sensible people that the were they promised to do everything they could to convince the SPCA that we would be good cat parents.

Later that day I finally got a call saying that the kitten could be ours!

And that is how Felicity came to stay with us.*