Chiffon Bias Seams

[kbecker]

Hello!

I am working on a wedding gown that has a bias-cut, mermaid shaped skirt. The base layer for the skirt is silk charmeuse, which is finished and looks great. The problem is the chiffon overskirt. I cut it out with pattern weights and a rotary cutter (I didn't use paper underneath - I didn't know that trick until reading about it this morning, but I don't know if that was the problem). The side seams are curved out over the hip area and in at the knee, then flare back out to the hem. I sewed the seams together using a double-row of stitching, one on the seamline and one 1/8" away in the seam allowance, then trimmed close to the second row of stitching. All seemed fine until I attached the skirts to the bodice, and I noticed that the side seams have a distinct "ruffle" to them throughout the shaped areas. It looks like the problem has something to do with stretch, but I'm not sure exactly what it is or how to fix this. I've had the same thing happen to a lesser extent when using French seams on chiffon - the seem to "ruffle" a bit along the bound-edge of the finished seam (although if I recall correctly the seam edge that shows on the outside, it looks smooth).

Can anyone help me? What did I do wrong? How can I fix this? I've read that it's advised to use a short, small zigzag stitch - would this work?

Thanks in advance for any help!

Kara

[DorothyL]

Sometimes a longer stitch helps when a thin fabric doesn't take well to stitching along a bias cut.
And a walking foot might help, or playing around with the settings on the pressure foot ( I don't know about that, my Pfaff with the walking foot doesn't do that). And steam helps but maybe you can't do that with your fabric. Test it first.
Dorothy

[MartySews2]

The seams have probably stretched a bit from handling which is causing the ruffles. Using a pressing ham, I would gently press the seams over the curves of the pressing ham. You may want to re-cut the chiffon overskirt using tissue paper under it as it may have shifted when it was first cut. Lengthen your stitches and go very slow when sewing. Being very careful not to pull on the fabric; just gently guide it with very little pressure on the fabric.
Marty

[paroper]

Did you use directional sewing? You should almost always sew up seams from the hem to the waist to avoid stretching the seam as you sew, especially on garments that are bias cut. I even do that to both seams of a French seam, as I would use on a chiffon skirt. My guess is that you may have sewn down the seams, sewing into the grainline and stretching as you went.

[kbecker]

I apologize that I didn't reply sooner - we had a family diagnosed with cancer just after I wrote this, so I've been distracted for a while. Things have settled down a bit now, though, so I wanted to write and say:

Thank you! For all the very helpful suggestions. All of them were helpful, and the directional sewing tip is genius! I've never even heard of it before, but it makes perfect sense now.

Thank you again for the help!