Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I've got less than 2 weeks to finish a bumble bee costume, so I sat down tonight ready to tackle the gathering foot. I saw countless YouTube videos that made it look so darn easy but didn't go into the tension and stitch length information that is so vital to gathering. Finally found one that went over the basics. Did a few practice rounds and the darn thing wouldn't gather evenly. So back to You Tube and Google I went. The problem is there is so much info out there, but extracting just the right facts you need can be time consuming. Armed with what I thought was the best info I could find, I tried it again and voila! it gathered wonderfully. You can see in the photo (black polka dot ruffle against yellow background), my practice gather is on top, but the finished gathered piece on the bottom is quite an improvement. So here's some tips for y'all. 1. Finish the lower edge of the ruffle with a basic straight stitch. Press with an iron. 2. Set tension to the highest setting and stitch length to the highest. On my Brother CS6000i, I set the tension to 8 and stitch length to 5 which are the highest settings. Depending what you're making, you can adjust this as you see fit. But this is as good as it's gonna get with my machine. 45" of fabric yielded 25" of ruffle with these settings. 3. I set my speed at slightly faster than the medium speed. This is my normal speed to stitch. I haven't tried a faster speed because my results were what I was looking for. Don't know if a faster speed yields a tighter gather. This is something you'll have to figure out what you're comfortable with. I'm not messing with it at this point. 4. Threads go underneath (contrary to some videos I saw where they pulled the bobbin thread to the top). 5. Fabric goes underneath the gathering foot just like your basic foot. I don't know why that notch is in the gathering foot, giving the impression that you should slide your fabric in between. But it didn't work for me, so I just rested the gathering foot on the fabric. 6. DON'T STOP. Press the pedal to the metal and let 'er fly! When I stopped & started, I ended up with an uneven gather. 7. No need to go back & forward at the start or finish of your gather. It will make it easier to remove the threads if they show on the finished garment. I hope this info helps you. The only reason I didn't give this 5 stars is because it came with absolutely no literature or directions. I've only done one ruffle so far, but I can see this gathering foot being a real time saver. ~ Linda/PA