What Is Ruching: Fabric Gathers Explained

by Elena Tran
June 16, 2020

Don't get intimidated when you hear this new word. Ruching is simply making gathers in the fabric piece before sewing it into a garment. The most common use of this technique is in full skirts or sleeve caps and decorative details on garments.

This is a demonstration of ruching used on a skirt.

Step 1 – Adjust the stitch length on your machine to the longest setting and sew two rows of gathering stitches on the top edge of the skirt: one at the seam line at 5/8” and the other at 3/8” from the edge of the skirt so they are parallel to each other.

Step 2 – Pull up the gathering threads and secure the ends of the threads temporarily by wrapping them multiple times around two pins. Adjust the gathers so they look visually even. Don’t fasten off the gathering threads until you securely stitched the ski

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