/cgl/ - Cosplay & EGL

>>10300173

Some options that might work for you:
-Zigzag stitch over a piece of string. Mark centers, halves, and quarters on the piece, pull the string to gather and then distribute gathers evenly by making sure that the segments you made earlier are all equal length. Secure in place with normal stitches.

-Maybe try flounces instead of gathers? As in, unironed pleats. You can do double-hand pleats which are knife pleats folded over twice (sucks up a ton of fabric as a heads up, but fits a lot of fabric in one place), or just normal unironed knife pleats or box pleats. If you put something like fishing line or horsehair braid into the hem you’ll still get a lot of fluffiness and body.

-I’m not sure what application these ruffles are going to, but if it’s something like a skirt then you could also look into cartridge pleats.

In the end, I personally think the best option is just to gather with long hand stitches. It’s really not that bad or slow, you just have to mark centers so the gathering stays consistent.