Gathered Front Tutorial - Kairuku Skirt

Here's a quick tutorial for how I gathered the front of the Kairuku skirt.

After cutting the long front piece (for rouching) *pink*, and a standard size front piece (to act as a lining) *Grey*; I stitched a straight stitch down both sides of the rouched (pink) front piece. I used a straight stitch on the longest length a bit looser than I'd usually use.

I then pinned the front rouched piece to the lining piece. First I found the centre of both pieces by folding and lined up the middle and pinned. I also put my pin about one inch from the end as this will be hemmed and I don't need to gather this part.

Now I work with just the pink fabric, using the grey lining to check the measurement.

Then I gently pulled the bobbin thread sliding the pink fabric along the thread. (This is tricky to photograph) 
you can see from this shot that I'm sliding the fabric with one hand while gently putting the bobbin thread with the other hand. 

I actually only gather one half at a time, stopping when i get to the pin marking the middle of the front piece. 
I use the grey fabric to check the length. In this photo you can see the pink is gathered more than the grey fabric so I pulled the gathers to lengthen them a bit to match the length (second photo below).

Once I've got the right length I tie both the bobbin and top thread in a knot to secure the gathers. 

I then pin along the gathered front and lining piece, spacing the gathers out as I go. 

I flip it around and do the same along the other half of the front piece.

Here's how it now looks once the whole side is pinned. 


Then I stitch the gathered front to the lining piece.

and, treat the front (gathered and lining) pieces as one piece while I complete the rest of the skirt. Here is a photo of the centre front pinned to the sides. 

I then stitched the sides to the centre front piece as per the pattern. 

And the final result looks so good! 
If you're interested, here's my pocket hack for this skirt. 

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