Tutorial on sewing a casing AROUND elastic...its easy! LOTS of pictures!

This tutorial is about how to EASILY make a casing with the elastic in it. You dont have to make a casing, then thread the elastic thru, oh no! There is a better way! Throw away your thingamajig you use to get that elastic thru the casing, cuss no more!

In the first pic below what I have done is I have laid the elastic across the fabric and sewed the edge down so that the elastic dont come out while I am sewing.



Then you are ready to get busy getting this elastic in your garment!


Here above you can see the elastic across the garment, and below you can see how I fold the fabric before I stitch it down.



Just fold it like you see above with the raw edge on the inside and stitch it down!

Make sure you fold the raw edge over and under the elastic. Also make sure your not sewing ON the elastic...not that I have done that before.... (tries to look innocent)



Once you come to the end of your fabric, you want to push your fabric up the elastic to bunch it up or whatever. You can measure the elastic if you have a preset measurement you need the elastic to be, like here on this pillowcase dress I make the elastic part about 6 inches wide. I just bunch it up till I got fabric bunched up on 6 inches of the elastic, then I sew it down:

Then cut off your elastic:



Then your done!


You can stretch the elastic a few times to get the fabric ruffled on there real good and even.

If your making something like putting elastic in a skirt waistband, you can pin down the end of the elastic rather than sew it down cause you have to sew both ends of the elastic together when your done making the casing.

If you have a situation like in a skirt waistband where you dont have enough fabric to go all the way around the skirt before you bunch it up, you can push the fabric up on the elastic as you sew to give you more elastic to sew a casing around. Make sure the end is pinned down!! You will lose the elastic in the casing and be cussing again in no time! I have done this...its not pretty.

If I have lost you, made you more confused, or god forbid, made you cuss even more over the elastic/casing thing, let me know! I can clarify anything I have screwed up here LOL I took lots of pictures with this one cause pictures help a lot...some people are more visual.

The important thing is you sew and have FUN with it. Little things like this can make your sewing experiance so much more enjoyable rather than frustrating. So get your butt busy and sew something!!!