Ruffle Repair 101 - Quick Fix For Broken Basting Threads

If your basting thread breaks while your gathering your ruffle or stitching it together, there is no need to panic.  But you must act quickly to save yourself from a complete do-over.

Whilst serging together the ruffled tiers of The San Antonio Stroll Skirt, such a near disaster happened to me.  Yep, and I was like NO WAY.  I am NOT doing this whole thing over!  

I'm sharing a sure-fire way to save the day.  There is probably more than one way to save your ruffle.  This is my way.

Step One:  Stop the bleeding!

In other words, don't just watch the broken thread slip through those beautiful gathers until the ruffle is completely un-rufffled!  How do you stop it?  Grab the basting thread and tie it in a big fat messy knot. If you have two broken threads, tie them together in one big knot.

NOTE: When ruffling, it is always best to machine baste two or three rows parallel to each other.  That way if one breaks you have a back up.  In my case, I had two rows and broke BOTH.  Actually, I accidentally cut them with the knife of my serger as I was stitching them together.

Step Two:  Secure the other end of the basting thread.  Tie it in one big fat messy knot, too.

Step Three:  Thread a hand-sewing needle with plenty of thread. Double the thread and tie it in a big, fat, messy knot at the end.

Step Four:  Starting just on the inside edge of the unbroken part of your ruffle, begin stitching by hand, following along the lines in your fabric made from the machine basting.  You don't have to catch every stitch, but stitch it as small as you can.

 

Keep following along your row as evenly as you can.  It doesn't have to be perfect.

 

 

 

 

 

Step Five:  When you get to the end, leave a little thread loose (so you can tie another big, fat messy, knot later) and stitch back down the other row towards the spot where you started.  You'll end up with two parallel rows of stitches.  

Step Six: Gather your ruffle together, being careful not to break any more of the machine basted ruffle threads as you are gathering.

 

Step Seven:  Tie a big, fat, messy knot on each end of the repaired ruffle and clip thread between knot and sewing needle.

  

Congratulations, you just saved yourself a whole lot of do-over work and thread.  Now you are ready go back to your project and carry on!

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