Ice Mom’s Sewing Guide: How to Sew Elastic to Figure Skating Outfits

Figure skating outfits have two qualities: they’re form-fitting and they’re stretchy. Despite the stretchy nature of the Lycra fabric, it doesn’t cling to the body. It allows for movement, sure, but without elastic along the fabric edges, that stuff would gap in an embarrassing way.

Elastic, encased in the neck, arm, and leg openings, keeps the fabric against the figure skater’s body while she twists and turns on the ice.

I use so much elastic in my sewing that I just buy it in bulk when it goes on sale. Sometimes I buy the little packages of elastic, too, when they’re on sale, but mostly I buy five – 10 yards of the stuff when it’s on sale and shove the mess in a ziplock bag and into my sewing cabinet’s drawer. If you’re going to buy it in bulk, like me, buy the 3/8” elastic and some 1” elastic (for skirt and pants waistbands). I buy mostly white elastic, but I do buy a few yards of black, too. I like using the black with dark fabrics. The fabric will stretch a little over the elastic and I don’t like seeing a whitish elastic shadow behind the fabric.

Materials:

• 3/8” elastic for leg openings, 1″ elastic for waistbands (usually white, but black is O.K., too)
• New stretch needle (use a new one to begin the garment – that same one is fine for elastic, too)
• Thread
• Sharp snips
• Sharp pins (buy new ones every so often, so you snag the fabric less)

Applying elastic in a loop

You’ll use this technique all the time when you sew elastic around leg openings and some arm openings.

Cut and sew the elastic into a loop. Read your pattern to find out how long the elastic should be. Measure and cut the elastic. Overlap the ends about 1/2′” and sew them together using a zig-zag stitch. Sewing them together here is down-and-dirty. We’re not looking for your best stitching for this – just hold the two ends together. If it all looks like a rat’s nest, clip the stray threads and shrug your shoulders. You’ll be able to hide the ugly stitching.

Split the leg or arm opening into eighths using pins. Don’t let the math part freak you out. Just walk though it with me – you’ll be fine. Turn the garment wrong-side out. Pull four of the same color out of your pincushion and set them aside. Put one pin in the seam allowance of the leg opening, pinning it so that the pinhead is sticking out into the air and the pin is perpendicular to the cut edge. With me?

Great. Pull the fabric where you’ve pinned all the way to the left and even up the two pieces of fabric all the way to the right. The idea is that you’re going to split the fabric into two equal halves. When you have the cut edges even all the way to the right of the pin, stick your next pin into the folded edge at the right. Open the leg opening and match the two pins together. Line up all the fabric to the right of the two pins and stick your third pin into that fold. Do the same for the left side of the two pins. When you open up the leg opening, you should have four evenly spaced pins – you’ve just pinned it into quarters.

Set aside four pins of a different color from your pincushion. Match one pin in the leg opening with its neighboring pin. Align the cut edges and pin the fold, using one of the four pins you’ve set out. Bring together the next two pins (same color) and pin the fold using a different color pin. Pin until all four of your new pins are gone. Now it’s in eighths.

Pin the elastic loop into eighths using the same method.
Pin the elastic to the fabric. Match the pins in the elastic loop to the pins on the leg opening and pin the elastic to the wrong side of the leg opening. One elastic edge should be even with the cut edge of the fabric. I usually put the bulky part of the loop near the base of the leg opening, so the lump doesn’t show. Do not panic if you have more fabric than elastic. This is normal.
Sew the elastic to the fabric. Set your machine to a zig-zag stitch. Thread the machine with thread that matches the fabric. Slide the leg opening under the presser foot with the pins sticking out to your right and the fabric on the left. Lower the presser foot and take a couple of stitches through the middle of the elastic and back up your stitching to secure. Hold the elastic behind the presser foot and in front of the presser foot. Pull gently until the elastic and the fabric are the same length. Do not overpull the fabric. Just because it’s stretchy doesn’t mean you should tug on it too much. Do that and the fabric will pucker. Sew while pulling gently and stop sewing when you reach your next pin. Unpin, pull gently from the back and front, and sew again. Repeat until you’ve finished the entire leg opening.
Sew the elastic hem. Now that you’ve attached the elastic, you’ll need to fold it over and stitch so that you hide the elastic. Fold over the elastic and pin the leg opening into eighths. Slide the fabric into your machine, wrong side up. Stitch and pull using a zig-zag stitch close to the raw edge of the fabric.

Applying elastic in a straight line

Sometimes a pattern will ask you to apply elastic to a neckline or bodice back, but the elastic will be in a straight piece instead of a loop.

Measure and cut the elastic – and add a bit more. This step is really important. Read your pattern to find out how long they ask you to cut the elastic. Starting 1” from the cut end of the elastic, make a mark with chalk or a marking pen. Use that mark to measure the elastic. Do not cut the elastic. Instead, mark the end with your chalk or marking pen. Cut the elastic about 1” from your second mark. In other words, when you’re done, you’ll have a piece of elastic that’s 2” longer than what the pattern asked you to cut.

Split the elastic and the fabric into eighths or more. Pull out five of the same color pins from your pincushion and set aside. Put one pin in the elastic at one chalk mark (see above). Put another pin at the other chalk mark. Bring the two pins together and place a pin at the midpoint. Bring the midpoint pin to one of the end pins and pin at the midpoint. Do the same for the other end pin.
Pull four pins of the same color (different from the five pins) from your pincushion. Bring the same color pins together along the elastic and pin with a contrasting color pin at the midpoint. You should now have separated the elastic into eighths.

Turn the garment so the wrong side of the fabric is up. Split the neckline fabric into eighths in the same manner. Use the edge of the fabric as if it were the chalk-marked part of the elastic.
Pin the elastic to the fabric. Pin the elastic to the wrong side of the fabric, matching pins. One elastic edge should be even with the cut edge of the fabric. Do not panic if you have more fabric than elastic. This is normal

Sew the elastic to the fabric. Set your machine to a zig-zag stitch. Thread the machine with thread that matches the fabric. Slide the neck opening under the presser foot with the pins sticking out to your right and the fabric on the left. Lower the presser foot and take a couple of stitches through the middle of the elastic and back up your stitching to secure. Hold the extra bit of elastic behind the presser foot and in front of the presser foot. Pull gently until the elastic and the fabric are the same length. Do not overpull the fabric. Just because it’s stretchy doesn’t mean you should tug on it too much. Do that and the fabric will pucker. Sew while pulling gently and stop sewing when you reach your next pin. Unpin, pull gently from the back and front, and sew again. Repeat until you’ve finished the entire neck opening. While you’re sewing either end of the elastic, the reason we left 1” extra will become very clear. You’re welcome.

Sew the elastic hem. Now that you’ve attached the elastic, you’ll need to fold it over and stitch so that you hide the elastic. Fold over the elastic and pin the neck opening into eighths. Slide the fabric into your machine, wrong side up. Stitch and pull using a zig-zag stitch close to the raw edge of the fabric. Again, you’ll use that extra 1” on either side of the elastic to help you pull. Once you’ve stitched the elastic hem, it’s safe to cut off that 1” extra on either side of the hem.

Applying elastic to waistbands

I used to struggle with waistbands. I don’t like to sew casings and thread them with elastic – even with an elastic puller. I also find the waistband never looks like ready-to-wear and that the elastic sometimes twists around in the casing.

One night I had a brainwave: why not treat waistbands as if they were giant leg openings?

I tell you, this was one of the smartest things I’ve done.

Combine the waistband and the skirt panty/skirt or pants leg. This goes way back to the cutting step. Before you lay out your pattern, make the skirt or pants and the waistband into one piece. Overlap seam lines and trace the new pattern piece.

Finish off the raw edge. Before applying the elastic, I sew around the raw edge of the top of the skirt/waistband piece with a wide zig-zag stitch.

Apply the enormous waistband loop as if it were a leg opening. You can see the directions for applying elastic to leg openings above. You’ll be able to see the stitching for the waistband on the outside of the garment, but for me, it’s acceptable and worth it for the time I save and the smooth look of the waistband.

Do you have any good elastic tips? Have you had elastic problems? Do you sew elastic differently from what I do? Did I make a mistake? Please correct me!

Photo credits:
Bands: Dave Bleasdale on Flickr.com Creative Commons
Bandsphere2: Dave Bleasdale on Flickr.com Creative Commons
Bandsphere2 spinning: Dave Bleasdale on Flickr.com Creative Commons