Gathering is done by the use of the running stitch.
1. Turn the goods over one-quarter of an inch from edge and pinch a crease to mark a line to follow with the gathering stitches. Open it up.
“Learn about gathering”
Fastening
thread
over and
under
the pin
2. Use a thread a little longer than the space to be gathered, which is from the center notch to the side of the apron.
(Use No. 40 cotton for gathering the apron.)
3. Make a good-sized knot, put needle in downward on right side of goods.
4. Sew on crease, taking several stitches before pulling needle through. Aim to take up on the needle about half as many threads of the goods as you skip, but do not trouble to count them.
5. When finished, make a knot in the end of the thread and let it hang.
6. Put a pin in at the last stitch you took, and draw up the work a little, fastening the thread over and under the pin.
Stroke the gathers.
“Stroking is done to make the gathers set more evenly.”
1. With right side toward you, begin at left hand edge.
2. Hold work between the thumb and first finger of left hand. Keep thumb below gathering thread.
3. Put point of a blunt needle or eye of an ordinary needle under a little plait of the goods and bring it up under the thumb, draw needle down and pinch plait with thumb.
NOTE.—Stroking is not often done to very thin goods, lest it be torn, but many small stitches are placed on the needle at once and pinched together before pulling the thread through.