Replies

1. 
   MaryinColorado | Jun 14, 2007 07:33am | #1

   I have a ruffler/pleater foot for my old manual Singer and it works well but was difficult to comprehend at first.   These days, I love using my Huskylock 936 serger for gathering and making ruffles.  It is fast and easy.  You just adjust the differential feed and can use the standard foot or the gathering foot.  You can even attatch your fabric or binding to the fabric while you are gathering it.

1. 
   Betakin | Jun 14, 2007 10:53am | #2

   Mary, me too, I have used my sergers for years to do all the ruffles and gathers I need. It is so much faster and easier. My newest coverlock/serger does have the gathering/shirring foot that can attach a ruffle to a non gathered fabric at the same time which is the same as many sewing machines do with their special feet. I always thought though if I ever needed to do any or many pleats, I would purchase one of the large rufflers for my machines but I have as yet not needed one and I have sewn for my 6 kids now adult and now all of their kids and their kids, kids..and still no need of a large ruffler. Maybe if I had one I might look for reasons to use it. They do seem to do a fine job.

    

1. 
   MaryinColorado | Jun 14, 2007 05:05pm | #3

   I think they are great, at the time, I didn't have a serger.  I have the ruffler foot for my D1, it just snaps on, I have used it twice because serging is so much easier and faster.

2. 
   suesew | Jun 17, 2007 03:57am | #4

   Yes it is easy and worth the money if you need to make lots of ruffles. One drawback is that the ruffles are not adjustable after they are sewn like gathered fabric is. However if you take long scraps of fabric and practice with different stitch lengths and different feeding "bites" on the foot you can figure it out . One way to keep track of this is to take 12" pieces of fabric and run one through the machine, then change the stitch length and run another one through and so on. The 12" may gather to 3 or 6 or 9" depending on your settings. Lable these as you stitch them for future reference.

3. 
   Teaf5 | Jun 20, 2007 12:25am | #5

   I agree with Suesew; the ruffler foot is very useful, but you need to test it on each fabric you use it on so that you get the amount of gather that you like. I inherited three different rufflers from three different machines, and they all work on all of my machines; I think you just have to know whether you need a short-shank or long-shank to make them work.