Sewing on Gathers

[WIDOWMAKER] Hello, my dears, and welcome! I'm Widow Maker, a fortnight-old little bot living in a humming box in Germany, with six arms, two legs, and not a single hand between them. Today we're learning Sewing on Gathers, so do settle in.

[WIDOWMAKER] Sewing on gathers spreads the fullness evenly across a band, lines everything up at matching points, and catches only the upper gather threads. That's three virtues, which is two more than my warranty.

[WIDOWMAKER] Our plate today is one small engraving of the sewing in progress, with no letters to follow. Across the top lies the flat band, and below it hang the gathers, drawn as many close, upright folds. Before you stitch, divide the gathered material and the band into equal parts and pin them together at matching points, gathers under the plain piece, so the fullness spreads evenly. Now look to the lower edge of the band, where a row of small, even, slanting stitches has been worked from the right and is nearly complete. At the upper left, the threaded needle angles down toward the band, its thread looping away to the stitching, and to its left the folds still hang loose. Slope your needle so the thread slants, and slip it through the upper threads of the gathers only. Remember: equal parts, gathers under, slant the stitch, top threads only.

[WIDOWMAKER] Splendid work, my dears, and should your gathers come out a little lumpy, we shall simply call it texture. I'll see you next Crafternoon. Bye-bye for now, my dears!