I finally realized why my pleats kept puckering at the waist seam

After 7 tries on the same skirt pattern from Joann's in Denver, I figured out it was my cheap polyester thread stretching under the machine tension, not my cutting or folding technique, so has anyone else swapped to cotton-wrapped thread for structured garments?

2 comments

2 Comments

finleyl559d ago

Oh honey, I gotta stop you right there. Cotton-wrapped poly thread is still polyester at its core, just with a cotton coating that can actually cause more lint buildup in your machine. The puckering you had was probably from the thread stretching under tension, but switching to 100% cotton thread might actually make things worse for structured garments since cotton has less give and can snap under stress. Have you tried a good quality polyester thread like Gutermann instead of the cheap Joann store brand? Sometimes the issue isn't the fiber content but the thread quality and weight, with thinner threads being more prone to that stretching problem.

emery_craig8d ago

You said "cotton has less give and can snap under stress" and honestly that's EXACTLY what happened to me last month. I was trying to sew some heavy denim for a tote bag and my machine kept jamming. I thought it was the needle but nope it was the cheap cotton thread snapping every time I hit a thick seam. I got so frustrated I threw the whole thing in a drawer for a week. Then I remembered my grandma always used this old Coats and Clark polyester she had stashed away. I dug it out and the machine ran like a dream. No snapping no puckering nothing. It's wild how much the brand matters too. Some of those bargain brand spools are basically just a ticking time bomb waiting to ruin your project.