I recently made a Boundless Knit Dress by Patterns 4 Pirates for a friend, and one of the steps required 1/4″ elastic to be added to the skirt portion of the dress. After seam ripping the elastic off the skirt twice, I finally got the elastic attached and finished the dress. My my friend absolutely loved it and I was glad, but that elastic!! I was NOT happy with the end results…I just felt the attachment of the elastic looked sloppy. When this same friend said she DEFINITELY wanted another dress just like the one I’d just made for her, I decided that I could no longer put off learning to effectively use the “elasticator” foot that came with my serger. There was just no way I could give her another dress with subpar elastic attachment…I just couldn’t do it! ( Did I mention she was so enthusiastic that I already have the fabric for the second dress and I’m using it for this post? So, yes, she really did love it (despite the elastic!) and you get to see the fabric she picked out for her next dress…win-win!)
This is the “elasticator foot” for the Juki MO654-DE, the serger I use. It came with a nifty package of presser feet when I bought it more than FOUR YEARS AGO. (Yes, four years ago…sigh.)
What makes this foot unique is that it has a hinged part that allows you to insert and feed the elastic uniformly to the left of the cutting blade (cutting your elastic is a big NO!). It has a knob on the top which adjusts the tension applied to the elastic as it is fed through with the fabric and this determines how much stretch it will have/how much it will gather your fabric. It also has a guide with a screw on the front that allows you to set it up perfectly for the width of your elastic.
While you can feed the elastic through the opening with the presser foot already attached (and, of course, I have done it before!), it is much easier to insert the elastic before you snap the foot onto the machine. Here is what inserting the elastic into the foot off the machine looks like:
Here is what it looks like from the side. You want to pull enough elastic through the foot so that when you install the foot, the feed dogs and the foot will hold the elastic in place.
Finally, here is a view with elastic from the bottom of the elasticator foot. Notice that the opening feeds the elastic nicely to the right side of the foot, allowing the needles to catch it easily.
This is what it looks like attached to the machine with the elastic inserted.
After you have installed the foot with the elastic threaded through, take a couple of stitches so the machine grabs the elastic and gets it settled in. Then insert your fabric under the presser foot just like you would normally. Also, you will need to increase your stitch length (I did this sample at 4, the longest stitch length my machine has.)
Then start sewing. You will need to do a few sample pieces with scrap fabric (ideally, you should use scraps from the actual project you’re working on so you can fine tune the settings), first to see how your fabric is playing with the elastic, then to see if you’re getting the right amount of gathering/stretch you’re looking for. This sample is a very thin jersey and it was NOT playing nicely with elastic, so it took some fiddling to get a result I was happy with. You might need to adjust the presser foot pressure on your machine and the pressure on the actual elasticator foot to increase or decrease the stretch of the elastic as it’s fed through and attached to the fabric. I also find that I like to guide the piece out of the back of the machine a bit, too. Not pulling, but just enough to keep it exiting evenly.
Pro-tip: Working with a foot like this takes patience and practice. Be kind to yourself and walk away from your machine for a little while if you’re not getting the results you’re looking for. Learning how to use it will be worth the effort, but it will be effort! Don’t give up!
Once you’ve attached the elastic to the fabric, you’ll need to cut off any excess elastic and sew off the fabric. If you like the results on the test fabric, then you’re ready to sew on your actual project; if not, play around with the settings until you get a result you like!
For my final test piece, I’m really happy with the results. I think the stitching looks very uniform and the gathering/stretch is just what I wanted. These are the settings I’ll be using to assemble the dress. I will definitely be much happier with my results this time.
That’s it for now! As always, stop pinning and saving and start DOING!