Shirring using Chain Stitch on BabyLock: An experiment & alternative

I’ve always wanted to do shirring; wide waistbands look nice and are so comfy when they are made with shirring.

I found BabyLock’s technique PDF about Shirring using chain stitch on the Evolution, so I thought I”d try it on my Gloria/Triumph.

How to make shirring with chain stitches

According to BabyLock, the general steps and pointers were to:

1. Use shirring thread in the chain looper (Gutermann recommended).
2. Place the shirring elastic spool in a container behind the sewing machine so it feeds off smoothly. (Confirmed it doesn’t feed well when it’s on the spool holder.)
3. Thread the shirring elastic through the telescopic guide, SKIP the tension disc, and feed it straight to the threading port.
4. Use the threading wire or sacrificial thread to manually feed it through the threading port. (The air-threader worked too.)
5. Thread the chain needle as usual with normal thread, into C3.
6. Set the stitch length to 4, differential feed to 2, needle tension between 4-6.
7. Use a normal foot and chain stitch away.

Problems encountered

I was able to make the shirring work about a fifth of the time, but I had the following issues:

• After a successful shirring, if I raised the foot to feed in the fabric for a successive shirring, the elastic shot right back through the port, so I had to re-thread it every time (or hold the elastic thread when I raise the foot).
• The elastic thread tended to disappear mid-way through shirring; the feeding is not smooth even when it’s placed in a container behind the sewing machine.
• The resulting shirring wasn’t very stretchy.
• How much it gathers depends on the fabric (it’s never double the amount even with differential feed on 2).

It could very well be that I am just a noob 😅; tips are welcome!

Alternative to shirring

My solution right now is to make multiple elastic casings and insert thin elastic into them (say, every two rows if making a tall section of shirring).

This way, I can

• control the amount of gathering it creates (by the length of elastic inserted);
• control how much it stretches (by the length of fabric used);
• adjust the elastic later;
• not stress about failing stitches;
• not worry about stitches unraveling (chain stitches aren’t secure like lock stitches);

So until I try shirring again one day, elastic casing it is.