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sewing leg elastic....help!

sophabellesophabelle
in Eco-Friendly Family

i'm trying to sew some prefitteds and i'm having trouble with the leg elastic...

i'm using 1/4" elastic and i don't know if i'm just pulling it too tight, not tight enough, or if its because the fabric is so thick!

can anyone help me? it just seems like the elastic isn't as stretchy as it should be once i sew it. 

i've got my stitch length set to 6 which is my longest stitch and the width set on 3 which is the next to widest stitch for my machine.  

 

this is what i'm going for 

https://www.diaperswappers.com/forum/showthread.php?t=932725

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Re: sewing leg elastic....help!

  • cm215204cm215204
    are you sewing through the elastic or just tacking the ends?
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  • sophabellesophabelle
    sewing through..  should i not sew it that way?
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  • cm215204cm215204
    I used to do that, but it seemed to be causing problems with the covers I was making. It wasn't as stretchy as it should have been when I was done. I've been (kind of) following these patterns https://www.diapersewing.com/prefold_to_fitted.htm and the tacking and then turning and casing seems to be working better. I don't know if I was just doing it wrong before, but it might help you to try it this way!
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  • SapphyrSapphyr
    I didn't open the link.  I tack it to my first fabric then when the diaper is together I reinforce but sewing through all fabric layers and creating my casing.  So far no troubles. 
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  • melissa00718melissa00718

    First of all the tutorial you are referencing, is EXACTLY what I have been looking for! So thank you :)

    I attempted a different prefold to fitted the other day, and had the same problem with the elastic. It wasn't nearly tight enough to hold in messes. I used the same elastic I used for my covers. I think I need to use a thicker elastic since the prefolds are so much thicker than the pul and single layer of cotton. I'm thinking of trying 1/2 inch, not sure if this will work but I'll give it a try..... Definitely sew through the whole length of the elastic, and make sure to not use too much... i have found that if you make too much of the leg opening stretchy it doesn't fit snug enough. hope that helps, i'm no expert so i could be way off... i just figure stuff out by trial and error :)

     1ht

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  • cm215204cm215204
    You're welcome! I really like the tutorials on that site Smile GL!
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  • sophabellesophabelle
    so if i'm reading everyone's responses right, i should be sewing through the elastic all the way down... hm... that's what i was doing and it isn't stretching right... i did trim up the fabric so that it wasn't going through so many layers and that did help a little... i just don't know what i'm doing wrong.  ugh!  guess i'll just keep trying lol.
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  • Temp76535187505890Temp76535187505890
    I'm no seamstress by any stretch of the imagination but I have just recently tossed a few fitted in the trash where I could see the leg elastic. It seems that those (B4 & Goodmamas) were just tacked at the ends and not sewn down the length of the elastic. I think that's what Sapphyr said she was doing too, no?
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  • sophabellesophabelle
    maybe i'll try this one instead.. seems a lot easier lol!  off to find my seam ripper and start over.
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