Happy Saturday,
Hope you have a great week. This week I have been focusing on the many blessings in my life. As we all know, life has its ups and downs. When you take a few minutes to think about your blessings. It will help alleviate some of the anxiety because your focus has changed. This has been extremely helpful for me this week. Let me know if this works for you.
Basting is a stitch that can be done by hand or machine. It is used to temporarily hold two fabrics together. Gathering is still a basting stitch but it is used to make small folds in the fabric . You will often see gathering stitch to put in a sleeve or for pockets.
You can do either stitch by hand or by a machine. I prefer to use the basting stitch by my machine. It is so much faster. To be honest, I rarely sew anything by hand. If you are using a machine, you will put the length of your stitches at a 4 or a 5. Often in your manual it will tell you the exact stitch length.
Is it the same?
The short answer is no but the stitch length is the same.
Gather Fabric
You will normally put in the stitches and having a marked start and beginning on the fabric. You would gently pull on the string from the beginning and the end of the fabric. As it tightens the fabric to form puckers. You can manipulate the fabric with your fingers to lay it help keep it even. This method is often used when setting in a sleeve. Remember you are taking a flat object and making it round to fit around the arm.
Hold Two Pieces of Fabric Together
Some fabrics easily slip. Often, the pattern will call for basting to put in a simple hold. This assists you to do another step. Example, I was putting in elastic on a knit skort, the pattern called to baste in the waistband. The next step was to sew the waistband on the outside. The basting stitch kept the waistband in place. This ensured that while I was stitching, the knit fabric would not move. I would sew the pieces together, making sure to catch all the fabric
Can it be easily Removed?
Yes, both the gathering stitch and the basting stitch can be easily removed. I used the seam ripper to pull out the stitches. Because the stitches are so loose, they will easily come out.
We are tempted when we are in a hurry to skip the basting or gathering step. Often times, I have found that when I skip this step a simple project then becomes a bigger issue. It would have been better to do the basting. Does anyone else find this to be true?
Let me know stories how basting helped you. Share stories when you skipped the step. Did it make the sewing project better or worse?
Happy Sewing,
Valerie
The Saturday Seamstress 