How to Use the Gather Foot on a Viking

The gathering foot on your Viking sewing machine is a useful tool. You can speed up the process of making clothing or home decorations with a gathering foot and avoid the tedious process of gathering fabric by hand. A gathering foot allows you to create gentle gathers in a single pass. Use your gathering foot anytime you need to create a gathered skirt, shirred fabric, a ruffle, or to make your own gathered trims.

Things You'll Need

• Viking sewing machine
• Gathering foot
• Practice fabrics
• Sewing thread

Instructions

1. Remove your usual presser foot and install the gathering foot on your Viking sewing machine. Snap the foot into place, being sure that it is secure and properly installed.

2. Thread the sewing machine. Try using a contrasting thread for practice and experimentation to better understand how the gather or shirring foot works on your Viking sewing machine.

3. Set your Viking sewing machine to a long stitch length and a high top-thread tension.

4. Choose lightweight woven fabrics when using a Viking gathering foot. Use a gathering foot on cottons, linens and other fine fabrics.

5. Use the gathering foot to shirr a single layer of lightweight fabric. Stitch parallel gathering lines along the fabric, allowing 1/2 inch to 1 inch between stitching lines.

6. Gather ruffles, skirts, or lengths of fabric by passing the fabric through your gathering foot. Once gathered, sew the gathered fabric into place with a standard presser foot on your sewing machine.

References

• Husqvarna Viking: Gathering Foot
• SewingOnline: Shirring