why is fabric bunching?

21 years ago

Hello!

This is my first post on this board, so please forgive me if this is an ignorant question....

I'm about to attempt to sew some pillows soon, but I have a problem with my machine that I need to address first. Last year, I made a shower curtain for my guest bath. Since I hadn't sewed since junior high, I was very proud of myself! :) Basically, I bought a nice shower curtain that was too short, cut it and inserted another fabric in the middle of the 2 pieces, and added a corded rope thingy (?) in between each piece. This part went very well, then.... I tried to add a "backing" to the completed curtain. That's when the problem started. No matter how well I pinned the pieces together, the pieces would be uneven by the time I got to the end of the line I was sewing. I hope I'm explaining that well. The pieces were exactly the same length and they were pinned together exactly as I wanted to sew them, but at the end the backing would be an inch or so longer than the curtain part. I don't understand that! So before I spend big $$ taking the sewing machine to a repair shop, is this something simple that I'm missing? Is it a tension thing? If so, how would I fix it? Or maybe a needle problem?

I am very new to this, so any advice would be very much appreciated.

Thank you,

Diane

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Comments (6)

budster
21 years ago
I think you need to invest in a roller foot for your machine....seems something is stretching one of your fabrics.
Rene54
21 years ago
DIANE first welcome to the forum, there is never a question that is not important, you need an answer, hopefully we can help, Budster is right your fabric may be stretching,You say you are just beginning to sew again, and you need a liner for the shower curtain, why not sew the liner seperate, and just attach it on the same hooks as the shower curtain, make it the same size, this way the two fabrics will hang well, and you won't be working on a project that gets flustrating, on HGTV, Room by Room, I have seen this techniuqe several times. easy to do and looks great. rene
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dbuzzw
Original Author
21 years ago
Thank you both for your responses. I will try a roller foot!

Diane
kathi_mdgd
21 years ago
You don't have to sew to do this,but i usually just put a vinyl liner on the same rod with my curtain.This way you have the "pretty" curtain on the outside,but it's protected on the inside with the vinyl liner.I also make most of my shower curtains and this works very well.
Kathi
GingerBlue
21 years ago
This is very common for one fabric to stretch as you sew. You have to pin like a maniac...I mean every 4" or so. But there are a couple tricks to getting it to work, too. When you feed the fabric through, you just stretch each section it a bit in your hands. It takes some practice and if you pull too hard you'll break a needle. But it's a valuable sewing skill to have in your bag of tricks! Another thing is to sew with the bigger side down. In other words, the side that's always coming out longer needs to be on the bottom as you sew. The feed dogs will pull it and ease it in as you sew. Always sew in sleeves with the sleeve side down because of this natural "easing in" tendency of a sewing machine.

Also, I don't think you mean a roller foot. That's the little one with wheels used with vinyl and leather. You mean a walking foot. But the darned things are pricey.
dbuzzw
Original Author
21 years ago
Thanks for that info, GingerBlue! I *did* pin like a maniac - more like every 2 inches! I think I'll try a walking foot and hope for the best next time. I really appreciate the tips. I'm saving this thread for future reference. I've already finished the curtain, but I was so frustrated with that situation that I haven't attempted anything since.
Diane